Nirendra Dev
Founded once by Bal Thackeray, Shiv Sena is no more a family organistion as Uddhav Thackeray has been stripped off the virtual ownership of Shiv Sena after Speaker ‘controversial’ ruling.
As a matter of fact, Bal Thackeray was India’s original ‘Hindu Hriday Samrat’ – a title later passed on to Narendra Modi by default or otherwise.
It is paradoxical that Balasaheb’s son Uddhav-led faction is today part of the I.N.D.I. A alliance comprising ” secular outfits such as Communists, Trinamool and Congress”. But as per the Speaker Rahul Narwekar’s ruling on , Shiv Sena is not his.
Initially Shiv Sena was an apolitical organisation but was patronised by the then Chief Minister Vasantrao Naik who used it for curbing trade unions and maintaining stranglehold of the Congress.
The organisation at the same time carried out a pro-Marathi ‘nativist movement’ chiefly in Mumbai (then Bombai or Bombay) in which it agitated for preferential treatment for the Marathi people over migrants from other parts of India.
It ran a strong movement against South Indian (Tamil and Kannadigas) people who were living in Bombay, alleging they did not respect Marathi people and their culture.
‘Shiv Sena’ also means ‘Army of Shivaji’, a well-known historical figure who took on Muslim hegemony especially under Mughal ruler Aurangzeb.
In politics it emerged as the ‘right-wing Marathi regionalist’ and at a later stage under Bal Thackeray as the “Hindu ultra-nationalist” political party. It was founded in 1966.
After the 2022 political crisis, the Eknath Shinde faction in alliance with the BJP is in power in Maharashtra, one of the developed and industrialised states of India.
Shiv Sena’s election symbol is the Bow and Arrow. It uses the saffron colour in its flag and an image of a roaring tiger — all symbols of right wing assertion.
But in 2019 after assembly polls,Uddhav Thackeray aligned with the NCP stalwart Sharad Pawar and also the Congress and thus perhaps gave away the party’s hardline pro-Hindutva stance. It may be mentioned in this season of Ram Mandir and ‘Ayodhya movement’ talks that after Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992, Bal Thackeray was the only leader who had said, “If my Sainiks had brought down the Babri Masjid, I am proud of them”.
When filmmaker Mani Ratnam had portrayed him as ‘someone regretting’ the Mumbai riots of 1993 in thefilm ‘Bombay’ Bal Thackeray had protested.
During and after the 2022 crisis that jolted the Thaceray family, Eknath Shinde and even BJP leaders have been mocking the Uddhav Thackeray family for having given up the commitment to Hindutva.
Bal Thackeray had expired on Nov 17th, 2012 and since then Uddhav ran the show. It is more often said that his wife Rashmi Thackeray and son Aditya Thackeray have been having a lot of influence on his political journey.
Bal Thackeray’s hyper active Raj Thackeray, who was seen as a natural inheritor of Balasaheb’s politics, is also out of the grace of the family and now heads the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
Could Raj Thackeray protect the ‘Balasaheb legacy’ better – maybe a question relevant today.
In political sense, the tussle between Shiv Sena and BJP that came to the fore in 2019 dates back to Balasaheb Thackeray days, and incidentally that one-upmanship coincided with the rise of Narendra Modi.
Sources say the ‘dynamics of Maharashtra politics’ have been such that even during his lifetime, Bal Thackeray at times sought to dilute his anti-Muslim rhetoric and used to say that his rhetoric were never ‘Marathi Muslims’ but Bangladeshi immigrants and others.
Shiv Sena was the dominant saffron partner in Maharashtra’s politics – which had often shown ideological tilt towards the Left and was almost overshadowed for long by the Congress.
Even the ‘Congress-splinter’ NCP led by Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar seemed to have better acceptability. But all changed around 2002-03 when Marathi Manoos developed a liking for a ‘hero’ from a state next door – the neighbouring Gujarat.
Analysing the same in hindsight, it may not be wrong to say that the illustrious Sena supremo Bal Thackeray himself had realised that well. Till the arrival of Modi – largely due to 2002 mayhem – Bal Thackeray was enjoying the uncrowned title of ‘Hindu Hriday Samrat’.
But after Modi’s success in 2002 elections and as Gujarat was drenched in saffron, Modi had easily stolen that priceless epitaph.
It got a quantum leap as Modi could repeat his win in 2007.
Sena watchers in Maharashtra rightly say senior Thackeray had all the political acumen to understand all that and certainly did not approve Modi as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in later years.
It was around 2013 that the Sena also floated the name of the then Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj as the prime ministerial candidate for the NDA.
Moreover, after BJP’s success in the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, the saffron party attributed the entire NDA success story – which included 18 Sena seats – to the Modi wave.
In fact, from the 2009 tally, the BJP’s tally jumped to 23 from single digit nine and Sena’s went up to 18 from 11.
Even otherwise, a number of BJP leaders in Delhi and in Maharashtra have generally considered Uddhav Thackeray ‘lusterless’ and Sena cadres demoralised.
In fact, senior Sena leader Anant Geete had said in the previous Lok Sabha (between 2014 and 2019) in as many words that the problem in Maharashtra’s saffron alliance was largely due to the fact that “the younger brother’s family (BJP) has become bigger”.
Prior to that Sena had other problems and challenges as it suffered three major rebellions. Chhagan Bhujbal, a popular OBC leader, had left the outfit during the lifetime of Bal Thackeray and so did Raj Thackeray.
Narayan Rane, another popular leader with a mass base in Konkan region, also revolted in 2005 and what made things appear more ‘sombre’ for Uddhav Thackeray was that at times Raj Thackeray (MNS) stole more limelight than Uddhav.
In fact, the rise of Raj Thackeray helped Congress and NCP in 2009 polls, something that was admitted by late NCP leader D P Tripathi.
Hence, the rivalry as emerged was not a mere post 2019 polls creation of the likes of Sanjay Raut or as simple as a father (Uddhav’s) love for his newly elected legislator son Aditya Thackeray.
“Sena in fact has faced this challenge previously also when it gradually cut into Congress support base,” a senior politician from the state said.
“Long back, the Sena was also called ‘Vasant Sena’ because it readily played second fiddle to Vasantdada Patil.
Bal Thackeray even had backed Emergency,” the source said referring to anti-Left plank Sena enjoyed during its infancy in 1960s.
But at subsequent stages, it emerged as a chief rival to Congress and in 1995, it came to power with the BJP.
“The dynamics of Maharashtra politics is such that Bal Thackeray had quickly given up strict Marathi chauvinism and adopted Hindutva. He knew BJP was gaining ground and now that it has made it, Sena knows where it pinches,” the leader explained.
Nothing is permanent in politics, they say and here comes the relevance of the good old maxim – politics makes strange bedfellows.
(Nirendra Dev is a New Delhi-based journalist)