Bal Thackeray may have been the epitome of
divisive politics in the country, as has been portrayed by at his demise. But
one cannot deny the fact that his following especially in Maharashtra has been
mammoth.
I presume the theory of - ‘bhumiputra’ or ‘sons
of the soil’ as propagated by Bal Thackeray, was a result of his, not so good
experience during his early life when he was
a mere political cartoonist in one of the English dailies. His cartoons
lampooned the Congress governments of the day and flayed their policies and
painted them as anti-marathi. Over time his ideas, through his cartoons started
finding favor with the Marathi ‘manoos’.
Later he started his own cartoon weekly called ‘Marmik’ and subsequently
in 1966, once his following had reached the required critical mass, founded the
Shiv Sena at the Shivaji Park, the same ground where his funeral pyre was
consigned to flames. By virtue of pure rhetoric and good public speaking skills
he managed to galvanize the opinion of masses that would swear by his ideology
and could go any extend to follow his dictates, in letter and spirit. No wonder
in 1995 Shiv Sena secured 73 seats of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra
Legislative Assembly. This has been the best performance of the Shiv Sena till
date. And later in 1996 it sent 15 Members of Parliament to the Lok Sabha of
the 48 seats in Maharashtra.
Now that’s the beauty of the Indian Politics.
You can reach the citadel of Indian Democracy- The Parliament, with the help of
a sub – national ideology. Only pre-condition is that you should have the
numbers on your side. People who would buy-in to your kind of ideology. Example
is the BJP, which had secured just two parliamentary seats in 1984 general
election and later under the ‘Ramjanmabhoomi Mandir’ banner was catapulted to become the ruling
party (under NDA coalition of course) of the country between 1998-2004. But has
since faded to being the opposition, with the retirement of Atal Behari
Vajpayee. Similarly Shiv Sena also stands at cross roads today. There is very
little optimism that BT’s son Uddhav Thackeray, will be able to fit into the
shoes of his father, who by all means had a larger than life image in the Indian
political diaspora.
I have just two recommendations for Shiva Sena.
First, try to have a more inclusive in terms of the ideology. Over the past
elections, data shows that Shiv Sena has steadily been losing its ground. In
1999 the seats it won were 69, in 2004 it stood at 62 and in 2009 it again fell
to 45. Now this calls for some introspection. Second, get your act together and
ensure that your leadership is able and has a futuristic vision. Charismatic
movements have the danger of being short lived. It is driven by the charisma of
the leader in most of the cases. With BT demise Shiv Sena is likely to face
struggle, as has been the case with Azad Hind Fauj after Netaji.
If you watched the US presidential election
debates you would realize on how progressive the ideas on which elections are fought,
are. Healthcare, jobs, taxes, friendly environment for small business and
education loans are the substantive issues on which votes are garnered. Even in
the US there are a host of communities like African Americans, Hispanics,
Jewish Americans, Arab American and Asian Americans. But in US politics one
would rarely be able to find the strains of communalism or policy of
appeasement to that of any sub-national identity today, at least not overtly.
As an Indian sometimes it occurs to me whether
in our country such mature politics would ever find place. Perhaps American
democracy has matured over time (since 1787) and we are still in the nascent
stages of growth. But my only contention is one. Can poverty and illiteracy
wait for the dawning of sense and statesmanship in our politicians?
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