Vidyadhar Neelkanth Bhise

Note : The post is very long. The post is about the Local Politics in the State of Maharashtra and would require many references for persons unknown to it. Thus I give a short list of some of entities I would mention.

MNS – Maharashtra Navanirmaan Sena – A local Political Party

Raj Thackerey – MNS chief.

ShivSena – A local political party.

BJP – Bharatiya Janata Party – A National Political Party.

Balasaheb Thackerey – ShivSena Chief.

Uddhav Thackerey – Balasaheb’s son and now working president of ShivSena.

Congress – A National Political Party.

Rashtrawadi – Nationalist Congress – A Local Political Party.

Vidarbha – Part of Maharashtra which is famished for long and is infamous for Farmer’s large number of suicides reeling under debts.

Elections in Maharashtra State are beckoning and the war of words between rival leaders and parties is heating up. But, sad part is the great language -Marathi- which is used as an instrument for hauling people, is suffering at the hands of politics. Emotions overpower my thought process when anything regarding my mothertongue Marathi crops up. I love and respect India’s national language Hindi and respect all the other languages spoken in India, but I love, love and only love Marathi. Perhaps, this becomes a barrier for me to impartially analyze any situation regarding Marathi language or Marathi people. Still, because this issue is rapidly turning into a farce and People of Maharashtra will decide their own fate in Assembly Elections in coming weeks, I want to put forward my observations and PoV (Pont of View). I will try to be as objective as possible, but please bear with me if I derail a bit.

From last year, Raj Thackerey’s emergence in the Maharashtra state politics has been the hottest topic of debate. Let it be his demeanour or suaveness or maybe his immaculate public speaking abilities or simply his management skills, he has just been the centre of attraction. You can love him or hate him, you certainly can’t ignore him. Some say, he is Congress’ instrument to break up the support base of rival ShivSena-BJP alliance, some say he is a victim of monarchist policies of ShivSena, some say he just wants to prove his own worth and some take him as the only saviour who can get back the old Maratha Empire glory to Marathi people. While most of the points seem to lose their grounds in different cases, the important point remains that he is certainly proving to be pain in the neck for ShivSena-BJP alliance and also causing a lot of disrespect for Marathis across the nation due to improper ways of handling the situations.

When he started off, I being a staunch Marathi, like any other youth got attracted towards his thoughts. Some of his thoughts are completely true, such as partiality by the Bihari Rail Ministers in Railway Recruitment and these are proven facts that, the advertisements for national recruitments for a certain state are printed widely in Bihar and in mere one or two papers in the concerned states. The entire system of recruitment has come under scrutiny many a times but has been set aside in some way or the other. Sometimes the leader who takes up the issue is silenced or bought and sometimes some different disasters divert the attentions. The issue remains the same and stands at the same place. From the very start of my understanding for politics, I always thought that Raj was the rightful successor for the ShivSena throne, because he has been on the field and worked with grassroots of the organisation, but unfortunately Balasaheb preferred his own son before nephew and the fight of the egos which in turn made the Common Marathi person feel ashamed started.  The media was extremely irresponsible in covering the events and it only sensationalised the entire issue which resulted in an overreaction from across the country. When Rajs Anti North Indian call came, as I said earlier I agreed and still agree on certain points that he raised, only the thing was I always thought his method of solving it was wrong. The violence was not needed, there was a constitutional way to work with things. But considering he had no members of his party in neither State Assembly nor Parliament, he needed to something dramatic to hog attention and thus he followed that way. Here I and many like me parted ways with his philosophy, and turned back to ShivSena just because BJP(whose supporter I have been on majority of the issues) still partnered it and the alliance could have given a stable and sensible option.

At this point of time, Raj was on a rampage. He was fast becoming a legend killer, with his take on Amitabh Bachchan and his frequent show of affection for his home state and the showman Amar Singh. Jaya Bachchan(Amitabh’s wife) proved Raj right by this unnecessary provocation and insult to Marathis with whom she has shared home for last so many years. Consequently Raj was given an opportunity to show some muscle by demanding an apology and consequent apology by Amitabh Bachchan himself. Bachchan and Junior Bachchan’s films were on the verge of release (The Last Lear and Drona respectively, which both successively bombed at Box Office nationwide) and there could have been no better time to make Bachchans kneel.

Raj was gathering bigger support base and Loksabha (Parliament) elections showed it as majority of women and youth(the most easily influenced group and substantial in number) voted for Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS – Raj’s Party) in turn splitting ShivSena-BJP’s traditional votes resulting in limping victory for Congress in all Six Parliamentary constituencies in Mumbai. Raj was now a force to reckon with, though he did not win a single seat. His points and issues still remained same, his language never changed. Even though, his party was elevated from a newbie to potential kingmakers in Vidhansabha (Assembly) elections, he seldom mentioned any robust plan for economic and educational reforms or any solid understanding of Vidarbha’s Farmers’ worsening situation. This is worth noticing. He has gained his ground, he should have started to be more assertive on major issues, instead he and his cousin are still fighting a war of words over Marathi concerns. “Marathi Concerns” I mean who is really concerned about what? Marathi people? Are they some cattle who you guys are trying to win over? Congress-Rasthrawadi is the worst government and the most spineless government of the History of Maharashtra, but you two by putting up this show of Marathi concerns, in turn are humiliating us Marathi people and pushing us further into distress by in turn helping Congress and Rashtrawadi. Those Congress and Rashtrawadi, who kept mum even when an unintellectual leader like Sanjay Nirupam (Writer of “Return of Jewel Theif” and inmate in Big Boss 2 and previously in ShivSena and now a Congress Leader) publicly demanded reserving 10% of seats for North Indians in Maharashtra. I mean how dare he?

I can see a pattern in Raj Thackerey’s recent achievements. When Jaya Bachchan had made that outrageous remark on Marathi’s She was promoting her son’s To-be-Flop Film Drona. She was accompanied by the directors wife Sonali Bendre, who shamefully(because she denied the comments with bizarre explanations) originally hails from a Marathi family. And interestingly, She is known to be very close to Raj Thackerey himself. Can you see a pattern. Two films on the verge of release, Jaya makes a notorious remark in one of the film’s promotional events, Wife of the Director of one of the films is close to Raj Thackerey who picks up the point and declares a self proclaimed ban on both films, quickly Amitabh apologizes the next day on behalf of his wives and consequently Raj clears way for films. Did you notice, how many times the names of Drona and The Last Lear flashed in so many newspapers, on the front page. Without any special effort films gained widespread publicity. Unfortunately for them, films still didn’t work. You don’t believe me, here is the latest one. Allegedly (So I say because, I haven’t seen the film) Wake up Sid, the latest offering from the den of India’s biggest overhyped director’s production house contains a conversation between two of its protagonists, which uses the word “Bombay” instead of changed “Mumbai”. Raj picks up the point. Demands for an apology and threatens yet another of those self proclaimed ban on film. The very next day, the overhyped director (This time a producer) runs to him and quickly apologizes, with a promise to re-dub the dialogue. The ban is lifted. Film is publicized outrageously as I have already said, you can love or hate Raj but can’t ignore him, his mere name has lifted the publicity of the film. So they say in the industry – “If you can’t be famous, be infamous.”

I am with Raj’s basic argument that, it is Maharashtra Government’s law that in every language, the word “Bombay” or any other name should be replaced as Mumbai with immediate effect and the law has been in effect from last 10-odd years. So, basically everyone should avoid the old colonial usage or any other name.  Noteworthy, is all the international and national maps are updated accordingly and also, the global News network categorically menion the city by the name of “Mumbai”. Still, people knowingly or unknowingly make the mistake. OK, they have made the mistake, ask the court to decide, make them pay. Get it clear for the people. But, disgusting was the episode that followed, ShivSena jumped into the picture with saying that, it was them who put up the Marathi issue first (which is indeed true) and thus do not heed to anyone else and the apology should be directed to People of Maharashtra and not to some Tom, Dick and Harry (which is also true), but why jump into it just for the sake of Raj-bashing. Going further the Chief Minister of the State of Maharashtra goes on to say that, if the filmmaker was having any problem with security he should have come to police to ask for it, there was no need to create a scene. Wonderful! I mean the Chief Minister is offering protection to someone who is in trouble for breaking(knowingly or unknowingly) the law of the state.

In this sense for me the film Kaminey was most subtly offensive of the lot to Marathi people. There are lot of subtle snubs to Raj Thackerey, but some go haywire and snub Marathis as a whole (I may be a little extra sensitive saying this). But some like a dialogue involving the words, “Mumbai” and “Bambai”-North Indian version of “Bombay”-between protagonist(North Indian – born in Mumbai but not knowing Marathi and antagonist (Marathi), which is very insensitive on Marathi people’s belief in Mumbadevi as the Parent Goddess of Mumbai(the word is derived from Goddess’ name). Still, there was not a word of opposition from Raj. Why these double standards? Remember some time back Aamir Khan also used this trick of publicity, when before release of Fanaa he suddenly felt like criticizing some Chief Ministers of state on behalf of Narmada Bachao Andolan, which landed him in a controversy with self-administered ban from majority of People in Gujarat gave his film the perfect boost.

My point is in every situation I have mentioned above, the ultimate humiliation is to the Great Language Marathi and Marathi people only. Raj gained his popularity, Uddhav his cousin gained his self satisfaction of humiliating Raj in public, the films got their share of publicity and incumbent government got what they wanted, the split in opposition’s support base, but the farmers in Vidarbha are still reeling under debts from Savkars (Money Lenders), the security situation is still vulnerable, the Congress regime is still living in its Nehru-Gandhi Family grandeur and completely ignoring the local problems. The loss is only to Marathis, Mumbai and ultimately Maharashtra. Everybody should understand this. Vote for stability and not in emotion.