From: The Indian Express, 15 Apr 2012
The MNS menace
A Raj Thackeray-Nitish Kumar confrontation seems averted. But MNS brand of politics haunts Mumbai
MNS chief Raj Thackeray, after daring Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to celebrate Bihar Divas on April 15 in Mumbai, has abruptly changed his mind. This time, Thackeray appears to have set aside his larger political calculus — one that involves mobilising the Maratha manoos by picking on Mumbai’s most vulnerable migrants, many from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, who provide many of the city’s essential services and prop up its informal economy. Though it was first crafted and practised by the Shiv Sena, the recent municipal polls confirmed that the MNS now owns that brand of politics. It has worked hard to achieve this, harassing cab-drivers and milkmen, threatening scholars, movie producers and even other politicians.
The tragedy of Maharashtra is that this agenda seems to dominate everything, with no other party daring to present a confident, liberal alternative. Almost every time, the MNS has set a line and all the others have lined up behind it — for fear of alienating the angry urban voter. The Congress and the BJP think they can continue this hypocrisy, saying one thing in Maharashtra and another in north India. In the process, they have all colluded in turning Mumbai, once the hub of Indian modernity, open and inviting to hopeful outsiders, into an intolerant hick town. Mumbai’s politics has remained merely an arena for venting grievance, instead of working on its desperate crises in employment, housing and infrastructure, its power deficit, its inability to convert investment promises into projects. And so, the MNS goes from strength to strength, working on the fears and lack of self-worth in its core constituency, those who think that migrants come and “steal jobs”, rather than recognising that the labour market stretches, in a flexible economy.
Compare Raj Thackeray’s worldview with that of the man he almost confronted, Nitish Kumar. Nitish also appeals to group pride — Bihar’s administrative successes and the upswing in its fortunes have created a new self-image for its people. Nitish’s visit to Mumbai is also a political strategy, but it is about celebrating being Bihari, of working around the country as well as preserving loyalty to Bihar while Thackeray’s political strategy is about confining Maharashtrians to the least they can be.
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