Shiv Sena, one of the oldest regional parties in India is turning 50 today. Taking its birth to have a separate state for the Marathi people, after half a century in active politics, Shiv Sena remained one of the many forces within the state. On the other hand, older parties like DMK and even its split away faction AIADMK, which supported the cause of Tamils were continuously in power. National Conference, one of the oldest regional party was in power in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, for most of the time. Parties like TDP and BJD are the front runners in their respective states. Even parties like SP, BSP and RJD are forces to be reckoned with in their states and UP is in the hands of SP and BSP for nearly two decades now. But, one of the powerful parties to mess up with and being one of the parties that occupies major news slots, Shiv Sena had become one of four major political parties in the state of Maharashtra.
Was it only because Shiv Sena became a family controlled political-cum-business empire? If so, DMK, SP and RJD are also. To some extent even TDP and BJD are controlled by families. The case of Shiv Sena offers a curious study into how a regional party should not be.
May be the reasons were etched in the psyche of the party and its workers that were, to a large extent influenced by its founder, Bal Thackeray. Though none can deny sincerity of one of the arguably popular leader from Maharashtra towards Marathi people, the current status reflects the status of the people of the Maharashtra state itself.
Maharashtra is one of the advanced and progressive state in India. But, then it is also one of the states where people walk miles to fetch water. Urban Maharashtra is cosmopolitan, but the rural Maharashtra is a society that is deeply divided over castes. While the Konkan region receives a stable rainfall and is green, the Marathwada is arid and dry. If Pune represents the traditional Marathi culture, Nagpur represents Indian culture. If Maharashtra takes pride of Lata Mangeshkar and Sachin Tendulkar, two living legends who were awarded Bharat Ratna, there is another legend who became definition to being legend, Shivaji Rao Gaikwad, a Maharashtrian, who became Rajni Kant only to be the pride of Tamilnadu.
Confused? Yes, it was the confusion in the attitude of Shiv Sena that was the root to all these confusions. If it was the separate homeland for Marathi people at first when Shiv Sena was against Gujarathis during the fight for a separate state, then it became an agitation against South Indians. What Shiv Sena forgot was that to favour the native population, one need not fight against others. When Madra presidency was split and Andhra Pradesh was created, many Telugu speaking people remained in Tamilnadu, who over a period of time have become Tamilians, and they live in far interior places like Coimbatore, deep inside Tamilnadu. India, was always a conglomeration of many languages and cultures. Never anyone heard that there is a problem between people who speak Telugu and Tamil in that state, that had remained in the history for the anti-Hindi agitations. May be the attitude of Shiv Sena helped in Bombay being ruled by Tamil dons in those days. Of course, there were rumours how Shiv Sena helped to get rid of Tamil don, Varada Rajan Mudaliar only to see he was replaced by the son of the soil, Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, a Mumbaikar.
Though it might appear at first that Shiv Sena overthrew a Hindu don and supported the rise of an Islamic one, in true political sense, it was only after the full-fledged polarisation of Bombay, post riots and blasts, Shiv Sena got to taste the power. And by the time Shiv Sena tasted power, all its major leaders saw a better future for them. Alas, they were denied any fruits for their hard work in the party that was slowly moulding on the guidelines of the Congress. One by one, they left Shiv Sena making Shiv Sena, a breeding centre of new age politicians to Congress and Sharad Pawar owned NCP. It is not a coincidence that Chhagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, Sanjay Nirupam – all leaders of NCP and Congress were the first generation Shivsainiks.
In another way also Shiv Sena established a practice that was later adopted by Sonia Gandhi. The principle of having power without responsibility, while being the King maker was the one that was mastered by both of them.
After one stint at the state assembly, Shiv Sena could never fight back into power and was restricted to Mumbai’s municipality. Though technically a municipality, Mumbai was and is a cow that could be milked forever and Shiv Sena was successful in milking Mumbai.
There was a time Mumbai roads had no parallel in India. In no other city there were such beautiful roads. Even after two decades of Shiv Sena ruling, the city roads remain with no parallel in contemporary India. Only, now in no other city there are such worse roads. The corruption in BMC, the largest municipality was rampant, and could be seen in each and every brick that dotted most of Mumbai roads. Mumbai, forever the best city in India remain so, even after such a rule explains the true advantage the city enjoys by virtue of geographical location and the spirit of its inhabitants.
Out of power in the assembly, Shiv Sena targeted north Indians, for a change, using the same old worn out – son of the soil – theme. In its obsession with fights with non-locals, the point missed out by Shiv Sena was that the party remained fighting for – ‘low level jobs’ for local population. This exhibits the fact that despite the advancement of the state in general and the city, in particular, most of Marathi speaking Mumbaikars remained – poor. And, Shiv Sena failed to enhance their stature and fight for white collar jobs for locals.
However, the main failure of the party was promote Marathi language and native art forms. The Marathi school of ‘gharanas’ is not in reckon in the national sphere, despite being in lime light earlier. Literature is less. As the Hindi movie industry is situated in Mumbai, the Marathi movie industry could never take off, despite supplying many artists and technicians to Bollywood, from Shantaram to C. Ramachandra to Nana Patekar. Only in the last few years, there were some movies being made in Marathi. And I am not comparing Marathi movie industry with that in some minor state. As Marathi is one of the major languages of India, I am comparing it with Tamil, Telugu, Bengal and Malayalam industries. Even the literature – compared with the same and even with Hindi and Urdu is less. I request to those who disagree with me to understand that I expect more from Marathi people.
May be Shiv Sena failed to attach the identity of Marathi populace with the party. It is time for the current leadership and it’s breakaway faction, to do proper introspection and find out reasons why they could not connect with the average ‘Marathi Manus’ across the state. The fact that BJP gained more seats in the last elections, when the people of the state choose to overthrow the Congress-NCP regime speaks a lot.
Rather than eulogising their leader as ‘Hindu Hriday Samrat’, it is time for the party to become the preferred choice of Marathi Manus. For a party to represent Hindus at large, it had to shed the local inhibitions and Shiv Sena could not even become the main political party of Maharashtrians. Hope, they will do the introspection and do come out of the shadows of irrelevance and become one of the parties in the state, to support the federal nature and structure of India.
Wish the party Happy birthday, for on 19th June, 1966 the party has born. Should I not wish Happy birthday to another irrelevant politician in Indian politics – Rahul Gandhi? Yes. I should wish him also. And I do.
http://www.thehindu.com/specials/timelines/a-timeline-of-shv-sena/article8746317.ece