The politics of despair

You could almost feel sorry for Raj Thackeray. Critics and loyalists alike of the Shiv Sena would agree that Raj was the leader best suited to inherit the mantle of Bal Thackeray. Yet, the aging and ailing Balasaheb, like the blind king Dhritarashtra, turned to his son Uddhav to lead the Sena after him. For a while it seemed that Manohar Joshi had managed to broker a peace between the two warring scions. Though Raj did not inherit the Sena crown, he had inherited the indomitable spirit of his famous uncle; and he would not play second fiddle to anyone for long. And so it came to pass that Raj found himself without a family, without a party and without political ground to stand on.

To bring himself back into contention, Raj tried many a gambit. He spent some time sulking, surrounded by a small group of rabble rousers, decrying Uddhav's leadership but stoutly refusing to criticize Balasaheb. Perhaps he thought he could "intimidate" the Sena into giving him the leadership role he desired, particularly when it had been rocked by the desertion of prominent faces like Sanjay Nirupam and Narayan Rane (and also that of Bhaskar Jadhav, right before the Maharasthra Assembly elections in 2004; a desertion that was less publicized but cost the party heavily in its strongholds in Konkan region) But in a party run by a man who greets dissenters with a defiant "Jao, chale jao!", this was never going to happen. Raj pursued this line further, choosing to seek "blessings" of Atal Behari Vajpayee, this in the backdrop of the Shiv Sena's decline in Mumbai and Konkan and its increased dependence on the BJP's groundswell of support in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions. The BJP played along, if only to keep the Sena on tenterhooks, but they were never going to jump ship altogether. Raj decided to make a new beginning with his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and when he addressed a massive rally at Shivaji Park, there was no reason not to believe that he would make his mark.

But fortune continued to evade Raj Thackeray: the Shiv Sena stopped bleeding, they managed to mend fences with the BJP and began to look ahead. As such, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation election, where the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP combine faced a 10-yr burden of incumbency, was his last opportunity to register on the electoral scene. This time, his cousin Uddhav stepped up to the plate and delivered. The Shiv Sena replaced several sitting corporators and even denied a ticket to outgoing mayor Datta Dalvi. The BJP-Sena combine won the corporation third time running and Raj was down in the dumps.

It is in the backdrop of these events that we should see Raj's last desperate gambit. He has picked up where cousin Uddhav had left off during his short-lived "Mee Mumbaikar" misadventure. The remarks on Chhat Puja and the call for North Indian "immigrants" to learn what he called "local customs" were dumb and disgusting. They sound particularly archaic in this era of globalization. Politically, they are a blunder as well; since North Indians are flooding into Mumbai and it would be madness not to back the "winning horse". But his party the MNS realizes that it has nothing to lose by playing to exclusive agendas. Isn't it amazing that the violence in Mumbai is due to friction between two bit players: Samajwadi Party and MNS? It goes to show that in order to create general mayhem, you don't have to have too many people on your side.

Raj might have become the whipping boy in state politics, chided by everyone. But, one must point a finger at the spineless government of Vilasrao Deshmukh, which refuses to take a stand for the rule of law. This is typical Congress indecisiveness; and sometimes it can prove to be fatal, as in the instance of Tarun Gogoi's incapacity to control ULFA malcontents during the massacre of Biharis in Assam in recent memory.

In the meanwhile, what is to become of "Aamchi Mumbai, mast Mumbai"? It is in Mumbai that every man gets to make a living and no one goes to sleep hungry. Perhaps that is why the city never sleeps. Mumbai has stood up to natural calamities, terrorist attacks and political upheaval. After the terrible events of July 7, 2006, the city was back on its feet the very next day, spreading hope the world over, the message that terrorism does not succeed if the people are not terrified. As such, Raj Thackeray and his band of followers can do little to break this fortress of fortitude. In the words of the late Pramod Mahajan, himself a symbol of life, "It is the attitude of the Mumbaikar... no matter what happens, he looks forward to the next day".