Don’t canonise Bal Thackeray

Death has strange effects on people. Look at what it has done for late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.

Eleven days have passed since the demise of the man who was a power to reckon with in Maharashtra politics, and every passing day is seeing more praises being sung for him — an outstanding posthumous
achi­eve­ment for a man who demonstrated to the country, with ruthless efficiency, how to perfect the politics of hate.

From mid-1960s, when a nascent Shiv Sena began its vitriolic campaign against non-Maharashtrians, the outfit grew in strength. With the brutal crushing of Leftist trade unions, allegedly with money and muscle backing of industrialists, the Sena assumed the monopoly of violent enforcement — and Bal Thackeray was the guiding light and ideologue.

The violent ‘lungi bhagao’ campaign of Shiv Sena targeting South Indians and their establishments unleashed a reign of terror, with the law and order establishment looking the other way.

Political leaders have been trying to outdo each other in showering praises on a man who has made no bones about his admiration for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ‘for his talent as an artist, orator and a man who was the master of the mob’. He found a lot of aspects common between himself and the German dictator – who, with his lebensraum (living space) call, might have inspired Thackeray’s Marathi manoos war cry.

For a man, whose organisation literally rewrote workers’ rights and fought tooth and nail to destroy the cosmopolitan nature of Bombay (oops... Mumbai), the eulogies reflect the insensitivity of the political class in the name of political correctness and social niceties.

There isn’t a major incident of communal trouble in Mumbai that doesn’t have Shiv Sena and Bal Thackeray written all over it. Thackeray’s skill in discovering a communal angle to every incident of consequence was unparalleled. The party mouthpiece Saamana, with regular inputs from Thackeray, made sure that there was never any dearth of venom for public consumption.

The Sri Krishna Commission too pointed fingers at Thackeray and his outfit for inciting the pogrom against Muslims in the aftermath of the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai.

For unemployed and frustrated Marathi youths who were looking for a punching bag, Bal Thackeray and Shiv Sena provided a platform for unfettered thuggery in the name of a ‘glorious cause’ — not to mention the massive cash inflow through extortion from businesses that weren’t deferential enough.

With no arm of the government being able to challenge the might of Shiv Sena in Mumbai-Thane belt, the outfit assumed the extra-constitutional power of censorship. From literature, art, sports and cinema, there is no area untouched by Sena diktats — forcibly enforced in most cases.

For a political career spanning more than four decades, Bal Thackeray has left behind nothing but a bitter aftertaste — let us not even talk about Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray. The toxic politics that divides people and fills their minds with hatred has done tremendous damage to the social and political fabric of Maharashtra in general and Mumbai in particular. With son and nephew jostling to bear the torch, Mumbai has more pain in store.

Let us not allow death to be the pretext for granting sainthood to Bal Thackeray.

(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on November 28, 2012)

Mumbai isn’t a tale of three Thackerays

Not long after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray termed migrants ‘infiltrators’, his estranged cousin and Shiv Sena heir apparent Uddhav Thackeray, not wanting to be outdone in vitriolic diatribe, has said that migration from Bihar must be kept under check through permit system.

It was barely 80 years ago that a short young politician popularised the concept of lebensraum (roughly translates as ‘living space’) to ascend to power in Germany. Yes, your guess is right, we are talking about Adolf Hitler, who considered anyone non-German sub-human. People of Slavic origin, Gypsies and Jews were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, deported — and in the case of Jews, massacred to the best of his ability.

The more the Thackerays (including Shiv Sena satrap, the ageing but definitely not mellowing, Bal Thackeray) unleash their polarising venom, the more it sounds like a desi version of Mein Kampf. And if one were to analyse their organisations’ agenda, it is only the lack of unchecked power that is preventing them from carrying out similar pogroms.

To understand Raj’s tirades and Uddhav’s attempt to whip up ‘sons of soil’ passions, we should go back to Bombay (wasn’t Mumbai then) of the 1970s. Bal Thackeray’s Shiv Sena was carrying out a vitriolic (and violent) campaign against South Indians, who, according to him, were taking away the jobs and opportunities of Marathi manoos.

It was under the wing of Bal Thackeray that nephew Raj and son Uddhav cut their teeth in the toxic politics of regionalism. Raj, a firebrand orator, always had more visibility in Shiv Sena and many thought he would take over from Bal Thackeray. However, it was not to be.

As the worried uncle started relegating him to the margins to give more space and visibility for Uddhav, the cousins drifted apart and two factions emerged. And finally in 2006, with no more maneuvering space left within the fold of the same party, Raj walked out and formed the MNS.

Ever since, Raj and his followers embarked on a Marathi chauvinism campaign; shriller, more poisonous, more violent and better organised — designed to outdo his uncle’s outfit in the same department, on his home turf. And it is working.

The audacity with which the MNS is able to continue with its politics of thuggery is an insult to our democracy and the rights guaranteed to all citizens under the Constitution.

Despite its violent campaigns targeting migrant workers, especially autorickshaw and taxi drivers, the MNS boss is a free man and continues his trade with impunity.

While several cases have been registered against the MNS chief and his outfit, thanks to our legal system, the bigot has never had a reason to worry or curtail his activities.

Mumbai is what it is today because it has attracted and made maximum out of the best talents from across the country. It is the migrants who form the fabric of cheap essential services that keep the city running. If people from other states were to be taken out of India’s financial capital, it would be reduced to an empty shell.

South Indian, North Indian, Bihari or Bengali... anyone who is a citizen of this country has the right to travel, live and ply his trade and maintain his identity anywhere in the country.

Organisations like Shiv Sena and MNS are a blot on our culture and have little difference from the Third Reich. They must be crushed before these cancer cells inspire more of their kind elsewhere and become malignant to our civilisation.

(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on September 5, 2012)

Divided we stand as Pakistan's puppets

Assam riots and its ripple effect have come as a disgrace to India and its leaders who love to flaunt the 'unity in diversity' tag.

While the violence displaced close to 4.5 lakh people in Assam, at least 50,000 people from North East fled from other parts of the country to their homes as random targeted attacks and hate campaigns via SMS, MMS and social networking sites created a fear psychosis.

Some media reports claim that the sheer magnitude of the displacement is the biggest that has been triggered in the history of the country since the post-partition bloodbaths.

While the violence in Assam has behind it complex and intertwined factors such as illegal migration, ethnic identity, vote bank politics, militancy, unemployment and lack of development, its 'fallout' across the rest of the country defies all logic.

One cannot fathom why lives and property of people of North East, very much the citizens of this country, must be held to ransom by elements who support Bangladeshi immigrants (according to government statistics, there are at least 3 crore of them). Can someone who threaten his countrymen on behalf of protecting illegal aliens be called a patriot? Their actions are nothing short of treason.

Now more evidence is emerging about Pakistan being the epicentre of the mobile and internet hate campaign (like most of terrorism directed at India). Indian intelligence agencies have said that it is a psychological warfare that has full support from Pakistani intelligence agencies.

Therefore, any act of violence that would hurt Indians and undermine our national security security will be the moral equivalent of being on the payroll of Pakistan.

What difference does it make if someone in Bangalore or Mumbai attacks people with oriental features? Will it solve the problems of Assam? Can even one among these brainwashed mobs differentiate between an Assamese from a Naga, or a Manipuri from a Mizo? Do they know anything about the unique culture and heritage of the North East?

India has been battling militancy in the North East for decades. The continuing conflicts and the resultant military presence have already made the people of the region wary of the designs of those in the 'mainland'. Even without the racially-targeted violence, they face enough humiliation, harassment and discrimination across the country. Reservations, economic packages and inspiring speeches on 'our India' will not work when our citizens are made refugees in our own country.

An anti-Assam-violence protest in Mumbai on August 11 turned violent, killing two people and injuring over 50 — most of them policemen. The thick-skulled mob did not even spare the Amar Jawan Jyoti memorial (for martyred Indian soldiers).

The exodus of North East people from 'mainland' cities have given a major boost to Sangh Parivar organisations. The likes of Raj Thackeray and his vitriolic MNS are hogging the limelight and whipping up communal passion. The way of life India adopted after partition has ensured that we did not end up a failed, savage, theocratic dump like Pakistan, and it is only natural that our western neighbour wants some parity in the department.

It will be an acid test for us as a nation to uphold the values enshrined in our culture and the Constitution so that we do not end up like our estranged (and deranged) sibling.

(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on August 22, 2012)

Cheers from stands can’t drown 26/11 screams

If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It’s been barely four years since India was hit by the most audacious terrorist assaults into its territory when the 10-man squad waltzed in through the porous coastal security and unleashed their wrath on India’s commercial capital.

If it was not for the selfless sacrifice of a Maharashtra policeman, India wouldn’t have had even a Kasab to save its face.

The cleansing agents may have removed the blood stains from the CST and the mammoth railway hub is bustling with activity, but justice remains a distant dream for the dear ones of those who were gunned down. Ever since the attack, India has been doing sabre-rattling, and nothing more, to make Pakistan accountable for its actions.

Despite more proof emerging about Pakistan’s institutional involvement in the attack, mostly through work done by foreign intelligence and investigative agencies, Indian resolve to pursue the case has mostly remained on paper. Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Abu Jindal, who has been recently arrested with the help of Saudi Arabian authorities, has revealed the shocking extent of Pakistani agencies’ involvement in orchestrating the 26/11 attacks.

Like it does after every provocative incident, India took a tough posture cutting off all engagements with Pakistan for a while — only to concede ground later. While the 26/11 dossiers India sent to Pakistan might soon be requiring a room for storage, any other country (with self-respect, which we are desperately lacking) would have put open bounties for terrorist leaders; and Hafiz Sayeed wouldn’t be roaming the streets organising rallies and protests.

Even in the latest round of talks in New Delhi, India was grovelling for action on 26/11 and Pakistan kept to its regular stand of ‘requiring credible proof and sharing of information’. Their only real interest was resumption of cricketing ties! And the shameless ‘super-power-to-be’ that we are, it was granted.

The government actually left the decision to the cricket associations to take the call. If cricket and sports ties were never part of bilateral relations, this could have been considered a ‘mature’ call. However, that is not the case. And since when has the BCCI, which is not even a government body (actually run by a bunch of businessmen for their interests), been allowed to take decisions on behalf of India?

Are the guys at the helm of the government such dimwits that mass entertainment is allowed to be a priority over national interests.

The decision to resume cricket ties as ISI smiles smugly sends out a wrong message to Pakistan and Indian public. It is a not-so-subtle declaration that the government would rather have the game raking in crores in revenues for some private stakeholders than stay resolute in its resolve to not go soft on Pakistan and terrorism. Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar has rightly criticised the BCCI for its decision.

While Pakistan has never let up on supporting terrorist activities targeting India, we have have been going out of our way – and at times bending backwards – to woo our bête noire. We have fought four wars; have between us around 400 nuclear weapons meant for all-out conflict; miniscule bilateral trade; and continuing acts of terrorism. What is the point in pretending that all the touted ‘confidence-building measures’ will bear fruit and we will be best friends one day.

We should have the courage to declare Pakistan a ‘terrorist state’ and invest in strengthening our military and intelligence capabilities. Pakistan is nothing but a threat and never a possible friend.

Cricket is great fun, millions love it, but the cheering galleries won’t take away the screams of those who were butchered in Mumbai from the nation’s conscience.

We must not let BCCI to become Board of Cricket Controlling India.

(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on July 18, 2012)