India: Far Right Shiv Sena in confrontation with the cricketing world

Daily Times
20 November 2009


HUM HINDUSTANI: Sachin versus Thackeray

by J Sri Raman

This is not the first time the Shiv Sena has come into a confrontation with the cricketing world. It did so, way back in 1991, when its cadre dug and damaged the pitch of the well-known Wankhede Stadium under the cover of darkness

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar did not know he was hitting those hordes of hate politics in his home state for a six. The two Senas (Armies) of Maharashtra, however, felt targeted when he told an interviewer last week: “Mumbai belongs to India. That is how I look at it. I am a Maharashtrian and I am extremely proud of that but I am an Indian first.”

Sachin made the statement, in answer to a specific query, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of his debut in international cricket (made along with Waqar Younis in Pakistan). The entire cricket-loving nation celebrated the event, but neither the Shiv Sena of Bal Thackeray nor the split-away Maharashtra Navnirman Sena of Raj Thackeray joined the festivities. The ‘Master Blaster’, as Sachin is known, had mocked at their Mumbai-for-Maharashtrians movement, marked by a particularly nasty offensive of late against Hindi-speaking north Indians in the metropolis.

The statement changed the tenor of the celebrations and of the tributes the titan of batting started receiving days before November 15, the hallowed day for India’s numerous tribe of cricket historians. Up to that point, we were witnessing debates about Sachin’s best innings in Tests and one-dayers, and what would be remembered best — his brilliance against Shane Warne or his batting exploits on the bouncy pitch in Perth or ... the Mumbai-for-all statement provided no debating material. Sachin had given us a sample of off-field, straight batting, and a delighted hurray in unison replaced all the technical hairsplitting of the debate hitherto.

With the fury of a fast bowler, clouted with contempt for the maximum, Bal Thackeray returned with what he fancied as a deadly delivery. The attempted bouncer, however, became an uncontrolled, awkward wide, much to the spectators’ mirth. The ex-cartoonist, trying to revive the embers of his rusty craft, chortled at Sachin’s “cheeky single”. He asked the batsman not to leave the cricketing crease and warned him being “run out of the Maharashtrian heart”.

All in vain. The crowd rejected the unfair commentary. The little bout between Bala and the legendary bat ended with Sachin receiving a standing ovation in the stadium of public opinion.

In his editorial in Shiv Sena organ Saamna (Confrontation), Thackeray told Sachin that he was “not even born” when Maharashtrians won Mumbai (then Bombay). The octogenarian was obviously right. The cricketer was born 13 years after that event of 1960. The dates, however, do not warrant a distortion of history.

The struggle of the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti (Committee for United Maharashtra) for the creation of a separate Marathi-speaking state out of the then bilingual. Marathi-Gujarati state of Bombay, with the city of Bombay (now Mumbai) as its capital. The demand was premised on the principle of a linguistic reorganisation of states, which had already led to the creation of other language-based states. Among the prominent leaders of the Samiti were Communist leader S. A. Dange and Socialist luminaries S. M. Joshi, N. G. Gore and P. L. Atre.

The struggle was not spearheaded by the Shiv Sena, which Thackeray founded only in 1966. Many of the Left-nationalist leaders of the struggle were horrified by the Sena’s war on south Indian migrant workers as part of its strike-breaking, union-bashing activities. They would have been equally outraged at the offensive against Mumbai’s citizens of north Indian origin.

This is not the first time the Shiv Sena has come into a confrontation with the cricketing world. It did so, way back in 1991, when its cadre dug and damaged the pitch of the well-known Wankhede Stadium under the cover of darkness. History was repeated eight years later, when soldiers of the Shiv Sena unit in Delhi (which has now dissociated itself from Thackeray in protest against assaults on northerners) vandalised the pitch of the Ferozeshah Kotla Grounds.

Neither of these instances, however, had anything to with the Mumbai-for-Maharashtra theme. Both were attempts to queer the pitch for India-Pakistan cricket matches and, thus, for subcontinental peace.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which accepts the Shiv Sena as part of the parliamentary Far Right, has not batted an eyelid over its stances on these conflicts of its ally with cricket. The national party never rebuked its regional partner over pitch-breaking for the sacred cause of Pakistan-bashing. The BJP, however, has voiced support for Sachin — without, of course, suggesting that such differences can dent its ties with the Thackeray camp.

Not that these cherished bonds have helped either the BJP or the Shiv Sena in the battle of the ballot in Maharashtra. But the consideration is unlikely to weigh on a section of India’s political spectrum that seems unaware of the deep corrosion of a constituency it had earlier depended upon.

Looking into Sachin’s future, what can be forecast with certainty is that he will play his last World Cup tournament in 2011. Will the BJP-led Far Right fight its last political battle in 2014, when elections are due again in Maharashtra and at the national level? As anything like a serious contender for power, in any case? Well, hopes never hurt anyone.

The writer is a journalist based in Chennai, India. A peace activist, he is also the author of a sheaf of poems titled At Gunpoint