Resources for all concerned with culture of authoritarianism in society, banalisation of communalism, (also chauvinism, parochialism and identity politics) rise of the far right in India (and with occasional information on other countries of South Asia and beyond)
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Showing posts with label Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Show all posts
India’s problem of mob violence is not restricted to a few rogue citizens. It stems from a culture of violence.
The
Indian city of Dimapur is under curfew on Friday after a mob of
thousands lynched a rape suspect.
Representational image. Credit:
Reuters/Files
March 12 was another sad day for the medical profession and the patient-doctor relationship in India. Photos and videos of
resident doctors being brutally beaten in a government hospital in
Maharashtra’s Dhule have been doing the rounds on social media. As
happens so often, the voices of agitating doctors will be given
temporary sympathetic ears by the public and by authorities, and then,
in a few days, things will go ‘back to normal’. Whether it is violence
against doctors in hospitals or against students on campus, we are a
society that never collectively condemns mob violence – and that has
perhaps been the most important reason we see such attacks happening
with increasing frequency and legitimacy.
The socially legitimised hooliganism of the Shiv Sena and its so-called sainiks
is a relevant example. I grew up in the Konkan, a traditional power
base of the Shiv Sena, and their unique chest-thumping and bullying are
part of my childhood folklore. Years later, I encountered these yet
again, from an aggressive district leader, during my stint as a medical
officer in the region. At 23 years, I was no less aggressive and was was
able to shut him down (it was, fortunately for me, just a verbal duel).
It helped that I was a local and that he knew that. Otherwise, as
happens in most instances, medical officers are forced to give in to the
orders (sugarcoated as requests) of politicians – admit this friend to
the special ward, sign a month-long medical leave for this gentleman, do
not discharge this saheb, often a criminal avoiding incarceration.
Dealing with borderline goonda politicians is a routine for
doctors all over the country, and many have learnt to interact with them
in ways that avoid trouble both to themselves and to their professional
integrity. Dealing with out-and-out goondas, however, is a
different matter altogether. It is a unique Indian situation, taking
birth from a combination of a generally inept police and judicial
system, and a culture that considers violence to be a legitimate form of
argument and protest. Dozens of assaults on doctors, especially
resident doctors in government hospitals, occur every year. For example,
early last month, a BJP MP assaulted some doctors in a Karnataka town. Last year, doctors were beaten up in, among other places, Puri, Patiala, Nanded and Mumbai. The list is endless.
Each of us has a set of reasons we consider ‘strong enough’ to
warrant violence, a threshold that legitimises violence. My primary
appeal here is that it is high time we got rid of such a worldview.
There is no reason whatsoever that justifies mob violence or physical
assault.
It has been painful over the years seeing my fellow doctors
experiencing the humiliation of being beaten up publicly, and enduring
physical and mental and physical trauma after. Often when such assaults
happen, we hear news of doctors threatening to strike, demanding (in
fact, begging for) government and public cooperation to prevent such
incidents in future. But the incidents are soon forgotten. No wonder,
when most resident doctors in government hospitals live in constant fear
of being beaten up.
When film director Sanjay Bhansali went through a similar violent experience
last month, one thus expected doctors to spontaneously empathise with
him. I was disappointed when that did not happen, but in many ways, it
was unsurprising. Like the average Indian citizen, many Indian doctors
too – despite their high level of education – harbour parochial views
about religion and caste, and have their own threshold of what they
would consider ‘legitimate violence’. While they conveniently exclude
the violence that patients and their kin wreak on them, they either
openly condone or stay mum about other forms of desi violence.
For example, when in February 2016, I, like hundreds of academics
around the world, extended support to the journalists and JNU students
who were bullied and beaten up by mobs, many of my doctor friends cursed
me. Besides, being a Maharashtrian, I also know of many doctors who
have no moral qualms about supporting the mob violence that is typical
of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Sambhaji Brigade and the Shiv Sena.
It is this contradiction of feeling entitled to absolute protection
from mob attacks but not raising a voice when other citizens suffer
similar violence, that India’s medical community urgently needs to
discuss and introspect on. While the medical community regularly (and
rightfully) demands and expect protection from mob violence, is it
morally justified that it looks the other way when others are subjected
to similar violence? Have India’s doctors forgotten that as part of the
country’s most educated and respected members they have broader
political and social responsibilities too?
Mob bullying and violence is among the most deplorable aspects of our
society, and the fearless manner in which Indians assault fellow
Indians makes one wonder if the constitution has some hidden special
provision of a fundamental ‘Right to Beat Up’.
Unless we start strongly condemning each and every instance of mob
violence, eliminating such behaviour will remain a distant dream. We
must condemn them all as citizens of the Indian nation rather than condemn them selectively
as either doctors, academics, Bollywood stars, Hindus, Muslims,
Marathas or Rajputs. After all, what we are collectively up against
is not a few rogue individuals, but an all-pervasive culture of
violence.
There is always strength in numbers. Just ask the mobs. What artists
and doctors can hardly achieve through siloed struggles, they can very
possibly achieve through a united effort. The most peaceful and the most
lasting method to get rid of a dangerous cultural tendency is for more
and more citizens to begin openly condemning it, until eventually the
wave of condemnation forces that tendency out of cultural norm. With
academics, artists and doctors arguably bearing the brunt of the mob
bullying, they have sufficient reason to join ranks and begin a
nationwide disavowal of the culture of mob violence. They need to speak
out against such incidents whenever and against whomsoever they happen,
for whatever reasons.
Thus, after the March 12 incident at the Dhule hospital, one expects
not just the medical community but the broader citizenry too, to condemn
the violence and to put pressure on authorities to punish the culprits.
Similarly, when other professionals face mob attacks, one expects the
medical community to also be at the forefront of the condemnation and of
calls for decisive legal action. It is only as a united society, and
not isolated professionals, that we can hope to challenge and tame such
an all-pervasive culture of mob violence. Kiran Kumbhar is a physician and health policy graduate engaged in public health awareness through writing.
By Chaitanya Marpakwar | Dec 14, 2016, 02.30 AM IST
With Shah Rukh Khan at his Dadar home on Sunday; in October, Karan Johar was forced to kowtow to Thackeray’s demands; MNS workers stage a protest at a toll naka
FIGHTING DESPERATELY TO REMAIN RELEVANT IN POLITICS, IS RAJ THACKERAY A PRISONER OF HIS OWN IMAGE?
From a leader who once looked like he could decimate Shiv Sena, Raj now gets his cheap thrills by arm-twisting hapless film producers and actors
Just hours before Raj Thackeray hosted superstar Shah Rukh Khan at his Dadar home on Sunday evening and secured an assurance that Pakistani actor Mahira Khan won’t promote Raees, one of Raj’s closest aides and his party MNS’s general secretary, Sanjay Ghadi, joined the rival Shiv Sena.
The two events encapsulate Raj and his party’s story for the past couple of years now — a leader desperately trying to stay relevant by growling every once in while at mostly defenceless targets, while his men smirk, even laugh, their way into rival camps.
In Mumbai’s fastchanging world of politics, where parties have moved on from violence, threats, and disruption as tools to win support and embraced a more inclusive development agenda, Raj possibly stands as the city’s last surviving bully. A relic of his uncle and Shiv Sena founder late Bal Thackeray’s brand of politics, in which bluster almost always triumphed reason.
The political decline of MNS has been just as dramatic as its rise. Just four years after splitting from the parent Shiv Sena, the MNS had won 13 seats in the 2009 assembly elections, a commendable feat for a new party. It further strengthened its reputation as a force to reckon with when in the 2012 civic elections, the party won 28 seats. It had then embarrassed the Sena by bagging all seven wards in the Dadar area, considered the Sena’s bastion.
However, things changed in all of four years. In the recently concluded civic elections across the state, the MNS managed to win only around a dozen seats. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, a fledgling party fighting for minority interests, won around 40 seats.
Raj’s partymen have been deserting him in droves for a couple for years now. It’s a procession that shows no sign of ending. Already, close to half-a-dozen MNS corporators have joined either the BJP or the Shiv Sena. Its tally in the BMC is down from 28 to 22 and it is likely to fall further. In the last assembly elections in 2014, while the MNS contested all 288 seats, it won only one. Even that MLA, Sharad Sonavane from Junnar in Pune district, has formed his own party since.
There hasn’t been a week since last May when an MNS functionary hasn’t quit. Not just in Mumbai, but party activists from across the state have deserted Raj. Last month, MNS corporator Ravindra Davne, the party’s sole representative in the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation, joined the BJP.
According to MNS insiders, the party’s secondrung leaders have all but disappeared. None of the former legislators are carrying out any political work. And the only space the party garners in news is because of two leaders — group leader in the BMC Sandeep Deshpande, and Amey Khopkar, who heads the party’s film wing.
And, both Deshpande and Khopkar have not been able to extend the party’s appeal beyond its strong-arm tactics. Deshpande was recently arrested for forcing a civic chief engineer to walk the potholed roads carrying a placard that read “I am responsible for potholes”.
Khopkar, of course, has raised the bogey of Pakistani actors finding work in Bollywood when the neighbouring country is waging a proxy war against India. He first targeted Karan Johar for Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, which had Pakistani actor Fawad Khan in a substantial role. The film released in Mumbai only after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis brokered a much-criticised deal between Raj and Johar, which included a payout of Rs 5 crore to the Army Welfare Fund. The move was not only labelled ‘extortion’ by almost all observers, but Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar also refused to accept the money, heaping embarrassment on both Raj and Fadnavis.
Raj’s overdependence on his party’s film wing to create noise not only demonstrates his depleted strength, but it also exposes a complete lack of new ideas in the party.
So while Raj gets his cheap thrills by dragging Bollywood personalities to his house and posing for photographs with them, his cousin and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray is taking the Union government to task over poor implementation of demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, earning him a place at Delhi’s high table. When he was in Delhi last week, he got time both with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss demonetisation.
Raj, political observers say, has become a prisoner of his own image. Having modelled himself on his uncle Bal Thackeray’s style, Raj has always believed in violence over reason. During the formative days of MNS, his men had hit headlines for beating up north Indian candidates visiting the city to appear in railway exams. While this was done to protect Marathi candidates, no thought was given to the fact that it did not in any way benefit local lads.
But then, this is the only way of doing politics that Raj knows. “This is the only way he can remain relevant. It’s said that now the MNS has only two things — nuisance value and news value. Bollywood has always been a soft target. Earlier, the Sena too was in the same league, but it has now moved on with changing times. But the MNS seems to be stuck. These threats and arm-twisting are getting Raj TRPs, but no votes,” said a political observer.
Senior journalist Kumar Ketkar said Raj’s obsession with threatening people into submission actually displays a huge political weakness. “To overcome that political weakness, the party will have to engage itself in activities that will help it create a new identity,” he said.
Deshpande, however, rubbished the analysts. “One election result is not enough to draw any conclusions. We will bounce back in the BMC polls. Those who are writing the MNS’s obituary will be shocked and will have to eat their own words. Our stand against Pakistani actors has been very clear from day one and we are sticking to it. It is our victory that producers are refusing to let Pakistani actors promote films in India on their own,” Deshpande said.
Raj’s real hope of staying afloat is actually not photo-ops with actors and producers, it is in BJP’s continued faith in his ability to cause damage to the Shiv Sena. Many believe Fadnavis’s misadventure around Ae Dil Hai Mushkil was born out of his desire to keep Raj up and running so that he can be propped up against an increasingly domineering Shiv Sena wherever required.
How desirable is it for Raj to be reduced to a prop in the fight between the Sena and the BJP? But then again, if Bollywood defines the boundaries of your politics, then it is unlikely you will get more than a side-role in politics.
█ To overcome its political weakness, the party will have to engage in activities that will help it create a new identity
Karan Johar controversy mirrors rising populist politics
The agreement hammered out between the producers and Raj Thackeray, under the auspices of the Maharashtra government, is reminiscent of an incident in 1969.
Written by Gyan Prakash
Even more disappointing was Bollywood film producers’ subsequent surrender to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray’s demand that they not include Pakistani actors in films.
It was painful watching Karan Johar’s video, proclaiming his nationalism, pleading for the peaceful release of his film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Even more disappointing was Bollywood film producers’ subsequent surrender to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray’s demand that they not include Pakistani actors in films, Karan Johar pledging to donate Rs 5 crore to the Army Welfare Fund. But perhaps the film industry should not be faulted. Their submission speaks of a larger and longer historical failure of the ruling political class to defend democracy.
The agreement hammered out between the producers and Raj Thackeray, under the auspices of the Maharashtra government, is reminiscent of an incident in 1969. Then, Bal Thackeray declared that if the Central government did not cede the Marathi-speaking districts of Karnataka (then Mysore) to Maharashtra, he would ban New Delhi’s leaders from entering Mumbai. He carried out his threat in February 1969, when Morarji Desai, the deputy prime minister, visited. As Desai’s motorcade attempted to avoid the Shiv Sena crowd, all hell broke loose. Thackeray and other Sena leaders were arrested. Sena activists went on an angry rampage, burning shops, torching buses, attacking police stations. The army was put on alert. The Congress government stood helpless. Ultimately, it had to suffer the ignominy of requesting Thackeray to issue an appeal for calm from his prison cell. The government distributed his statement. The Sena tiger had become the keeper of the zoo.
The Congress government’s failure to maintain order was not new. Immediately after its founding in 1966, the Sena under Bal Thackeray emerged as a populist force. In the name of pressing the claims of the Marathi manoos, it attacked South Indians, targeted Muslims and rioted on the streets. Maharashtra’s government under V.P. Naik watched the Sena’s rise from the sidelines — and even encouraged it because guns were trained on the Congress’s political enemy, the communists.
The Sena grew from strength to strength, practicing the politics of violence on the streets. In 1998, the Srikrishna Commission indicted the Sena and several police officers for their role in the 1992-93 communal riots and recommended their prosecution. The Congress-NCP government, however, had little appetite to uphold the rule of law. It zealously prosecuted conspirators of the 1993 bomb blasts — but lost its nerve in holding the rioters to account.
It stood by when the MNS ran rampant in 2008, cadres beating up people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Under pressure, the government briefly arrested the MNS chief, but did little to uphold the rights of North Indians. Two years later, Bal Thackeray’s grandson, Aditya, set fire to copies of Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey, demanding its exclusion from Mumbai University’s curriculum. Instead of standing up to intimidation, the vice-chancellor meekly surrendered. The Congress chief minister went along.
Protest and demonstrations are a vital part of democracy. But the populist politics perfected by Bal Thackeray, now practiced by his nephew Raj, is something else. Democracy thrives on difference. A discussion of dissenting opinions, a negotiation between varied groups and divergent ideas, are the stuff of democracy. The Constitution provides for expression and settling of differences through political parties, the press, courts, civil society organisations and, of course, street protests and demonstrations.
Populist politics, on the other hand, thinks of difference only in terms of “us” versus “them”, the “people” against their “enemies”. There is no acknowledgment that the “people” may hold varied opinions — no, the “people” are a homogenous body whose opinions and demands are singular and expressed in direct physical action. The authorities must immediately acquiesce, for the “people” have spoken. There is no place for constitutional rights and legal procedures; the “people”’s grievances require swift redress, without the intervention of democracy’s mediating institutions.
With the ruling political class unable or unwilling to vigorously defend democratic rights, civil society institutions retreated. Bombay became Mumbai officially — pressure grew on the city to shed its multicultural heritage. Bollywood buckled; leading actors and producers regularly appeased Bal Thackeray during his lifetime. Recently, populism has taken on the toxic colour of hyper nationalism too. With Hindutva leaders and television channels fanning the flames, populist fires now threaten to consume any difference as “anti-national”. The nation demands, as one television anchor regularly thunders, that its enemies be identified and eliminated. Raj Thackeray spotted one in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and demanded that its screening be halted. It did not matter that the Censor Board had granted its certification to the film.
What is particularly troubling is that the Fadnavis government orchestrated the agreement between MNS, film producers and Karan Johar, blessing Raj Thackeray’s populist outrage. But then, the rot set in nearly five decades ago. The decay has only worsened as dominant political parties have privileged short-term gains over democratic principles and institutions. The only silver lining in the present mess is that several retired service officers have chosen to defend democracy and refused to play along with faux nationalism.
Gyan Prakash teaches history at Princeton University
History revisited: Fadnavis isn't the first ruler to prop up Raj Thackeray for petty political gains
In inviting Thackeray home over
the issue of Pakistani artists in 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil', Fadnavis was
following in the footsteps of his Congress predecessors.
Six
months before Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis brokered a
deal between Raj Thackeray and filmmaker Karan Johar at his residence,
the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief had, at a public meeting, ordered
his followers to burn new auto rickshaws.
The reason was that
licenses for these new vehicles had been issued to non-Marathi-speaking
residents of Mumbai, according to Thackeray. No one who could have taken
action – the police, the home minister or the chief minister – bothered
to ensure that an offence was registered against Thackeray for this
criminal utterance.
The next night, March 10, a new auto-rickshaw was indeed set on fire
by five persons shouting Maharashtra Navnirman Sena slogans. Had the
police wanted to, they could have traced these arsonists. But they had
already made up their mind about who they were. The Amboli police in
suburban Mumbai, under whose jurisdiction this act of arson was
committed, told the press that it would check if the incident was a
deliberate act of mischief by those against the Maharashtra Navnirman
Sena.
By inviting
this politician home earlier this fortnight to placate him over the
issue of Pakistani artistes being used in Johar’s new release Ae Dil Hai Mushkil,
the first-time chief minister of Maharashtra was only following in the
footsteps of his more experienced Congress predecessors.
Larger than life?
The
politics of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has been limited to
anti-outsider violence. Its chief makes no bones about his contempt for
the law, the judiciary and for democracy, and dares the police to arrest
him. Raj Thackeray has been allowed to become larger than life thanks
to three forces – the ruling parties in Maharashtra, the police, and the
media.
Thackeray broke away from the Shiv Sena in 2006. In 2008,
he directed attacks on North Indians in Mumbai and Maharashtra. He
blamed them for taking away jobs of locals, for their alleged refusal to
respect Marathi culture, and for what he referred to as their
“dadagiri”. Two people were killed in these attacks. One of them was a Marathi-speaking young man in Nashik. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists also allegedly chopped off the hands
of a Bihari vendor in Pune. Almost 50,000 North Indians fled Pune and
Nashik, resulting in losses to industry estimated at more than Rs 700
crores. Information Technology major Infosys diverted 3,000 posts from Pune to Chennai.
Yet,
Vilasrao Deshmukh, the Congress chief minister at the time, and Home
Minister RR Patil did nothing. The Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were
due in 2009. They wanted Raj Thackeray’s party to split the Marathi
vote, which had traditionally gone to their political rival, Bal
Thackeray’s Shiv Sena.
Their strategy paid off. In the 2009 Lok
Sabha elections, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena ate into the Shiv Sena’s
votebank, restricting the number of seats won by the Shiv
Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance. Raj Thackeray’s party did not win
any seat, but it helped boost the national tally of the Congress.
A
similar strategy was adopted in the 2009 Assembly elections, where the
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena won 13 seats, damaged the Sena-BJP alliance
in more than 50 constituencies, and helped the Congress-Nationalist
Congress Party combine return to power.
This demagogue received similar treatment from Prithviraj Chavan, who took over as Maharashtra chief minister in November 2010.
Two
months after Thackeray’s followers vandalised a number of toll booths
across the state in 2012 claiming that travel should be free, Chavan
granted the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief an audience on the toll tax
issue. Along with Thackeray went Shishir Shinde, the MLA leading some
of those attacks.
But Chavan probably gave Thackeray the biggest
boost of his political career in August 2012 when he transferred Mumbai
Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik two days after the Maharashtra
Navnirman Sena chief called for his ouster at a public rally for which
Patnaik had denied permission. The rally was ostensibly to show support
for Mumbai’s policemen, who had been attacked at a gathering of Muslims
at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan but were restrained by Patnaik from retaliating.
The police firing was restricted to the violent section of the
gathering. Two protestors were killed. But a major riot was prevented.
The
police force was seething at having been ordered to hold their fire
after being attacked. At Raj Thackeray’s rally, people shouted slogans
hailing the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief as the saviour of the
police. But in his speech, Thackeray did not take up cudgels for the
police as such. Instead, he expressed anger that Marathi policemen and
women had been attacked by “Bangladeshi Muslims who flock here from UP,
Bihar and Jharkhand”.
This was not the first time that the state's professional force was being categorised on sectarian lines in Mumbai.
History repeats itself
Raj
Thackeray’s uncle and mentor Bal Thackeray had often publicly asked
Mumbai’s policemen not to act against “their own men”, a reference to
Shiv Sainiks, and instead, turn their guns on those he deemed to be
“traitors”, a reference to Muslims. The police had largely obeyed him,
and got away with doing so. Now, his nephew was making an even narrower
classification of Mumbai’s police force.
Like his uncle, Raj
Thackeray not only got away with this speech, which would surely have
attracted Section 153 A of the Indian Penal Code (promoting enmity on
grounds of religion, place of residence, language, etc), but his demand
that the Police Commissioner be transferred was also granted
immediately. Ironically, the tough and incorruptible Patnaik was said to
be a special appointee of the equally tough and incorruptible
Prithviraj Chavan. Obviously, politics mattered more than principle.
But
it is not just the notoriously cynical Congress that has encouraged
Thackeray. On the eve of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP heavyweight
Nitin Gadkari appealed to Thackeray not to contest the polls and thereby
split the Marathi vote.
Gadkari, like Fadnavis, is a proud
member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh that has always favoured a
nationalist Hindu identity rather than regional chauvinist identities.
But neither his organisation’s ideology, nor the anger of the BJP’s
electoral ally, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, deterred Gadkari from
declaring: “We want Raj as our partner.”
That is how important Raj Thackeray has been in Maharashtra politics.
Upcoming BMC elections
But
today, both the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and its chief are has-beens.
The party was rejected in both the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, where all
its candidates lost their deposits, and in the Assembly elections that
followed, in which only one of its candidates won. That sole MLA has now
floated his own party. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena corporators have been
defecting so rapidly that the party chief recently threatened them not
to force him “to revert to my original aggressive stance”.
But,
elections to the country’s richest municipal body – the Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation – are just three months away. Unlike in
Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena rules the corporation and the BJP is the
subordinate partner. BJP-Sena relations have been rocky ever since they
tied up after the 2014 Assembly polls. If an alternative to the Sena can
be built, even if that requires the BJP to blow up a hollow demagogue,
so be it. In this, the media will be of help.
At the height of his
popularity in 2010, Thackeray thanked the media for having “conveyed to
people across the state what we were saying, thereby motivating people
to trust us”. After the attacks on North Indians, the Maharashtra Times had
given him almost a full page to spell out his stand. Similarly, his
anti-Patnaik rally was televised live by all news channels except NDTV
and CNN-IBN (now CNN-News18). The media’s fascination with this rabble
rouser, who is always willing to be used by one party or another, has
not dimmed even though the people’s has.
The Rs 5-cr hafta
That’s what India’s soft power was reduced to: A bargain between the extortionist and the artist with state as facilitator.
By: Editorial
October 25, 2016
When Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis invited Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Karan Johar and other representatives of the film industry to his official residence on Saturday to broker a truce — after the MNS threatened to disrupt the showing of Johar’s film Ae dil hai mushkil starring Pakistani actor Fawad Khan — he diminished the fundamental pact between the citizen and the state. The “solution” arrived at, payment of Rs 5 crore by the filmmaker to an army fund, resembles the hafta given to assuage the local bully who has already intimidated the policeman. That there should be a price tag to law and order, that a filmmaker should have to pay money to ensure a violence-free passage of a film, speaks of the times we live in when nationalism is becoming a cover for an everyday assault on civility and freedom by assorted non-state actors. But most of all, it speaks of the stark abdication by the chief minister and his government of its responsibility to ensure and protect the rule of law.
But there was more than one cave-in in last week’s meeting in Mumbai. Karan Johar and other industry seniors had an opportunity — to take the moral high ground, to stand up to the bully, and to show up the cravenness of their government by refusing to compromise with the freedom of speech and expression. They failed, but what was far worse, they didn’t even put up a fight. Far from defending the liberty to make the film they want, with the actors they choose, Johar and Co. have let the MNS frame the issue as one that involves nationalism and patriotism. They did not point out the obvious: That the campaign of threat and blackmail, MNS-style, is not about anybody’s love for the nation. That it is, in fact, about the danger posed by the politics of hate and insularity to creative freedoms. The Fadnavis-led BJP may arguably have acted on the political calculation that propping up the MNS and legitimising its politics would help it undermine the Shiv Sena, which is becoming a competitive, troublesome ally. The film producers may have felt pressured by the large sum of money and the several livelihoods that ride on a film as big as Johar’s. But in the end, for their own reasons, both the chief minister and the film producer have let Raj Thackeray and his goons seize the canvas and stunt the frame.
Tragically, the Mumbai drama was devoid of any high principle, it was only about the tawdry terms of a monetary transaction, at a time when it could have been about Mumbai reminding the nation of the real power of the idea of India. It gets reaffirmed, and becomes larger, when artists from other countries, including and especially from Pakistan, flock to it, to work and to make it their home. That idea of India is made up of the promise of a system more open and free, institutions more rule-bound, and a society more liberal and tolerant of diverse ideas, minorities and dissent. It took a blow in Mumbai on Saturday.
Defying Supreme Court Order, Maharashtra Celebrates Dahi Handi
News
Mumbai: Several organisations in Mumbai, Thane and Navi
Mumbai celebrated Krishna Janmashtami on Thursday, flouting the Supreme
Court order on ‘Dahi Handi’ height and expressing their protest with
black bands.
The popular game of forming a human pyramid to reach
and break a ‘Dahi Handi’ (a pot of curd or butter) at a height was
organised by several politically-backed organisations by violating the
norms endorsed by the Supreme Court -- no more than 20 feet height and
exclusion of minors.
Mumbai Police spokesperson Ashok Dudhe said that the police are
photographing and videographing the celebrations across the city.
“All those found flouting the Supreme Court norms shall be booked and
prosecuted depending on the kind of violations,” Dudhe warned, though
police have not directly intervened to stop the celebrations.
A human pyramid as part of ‘Dahi Handi’ to mark Krishna Janmashtami, in Mumbai on Thursday.
Till 6 p.m., various government hospitals had over a 100 injured
Dahi Handi participants from different parts of Mumbai and Thane but a
majority were discharged after treatment of their injuries and the rest
admitted as under observation.
One injured ‘Govinda’, as a participant in the Dahi Handi game is known,
was reported to be in a serious condition in Ulhasnagar in Thane, an
official said.
Unmindful of police, one Chinchpokli organisation built a horizontal
nine-tier human pyramid on the ground, and another bypassed the
restrictions by hanging the pot at a height of more than 30 feet - with
the Govinda climbing up a ladder to break it.
The Govindas of
some organisations sported black shorts and arm-bands to protest against
the apex court ruling and after breaking the Dahi Handi, the topmost
Govinda waved a black flag.
In Thane, an organisation backed by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena hung
the Dahi Handi at a height of 49 feet in an attempt to create a new
world record.
One of the main organisers and MNS activist Avinash Jadhav said he was
prepared “to go to jail” but would take orders only from his leader, Raj
Thackeray, who has been critical of the restrictions.
The Govindas of some organisations sported black shorts and arm-bands to
protest against the apex court ruling and after breaking the Dahi
Handi, the topmost Govinda waved a black flag.
A Govinda in Thane amused onlookers when he carried a measuring
tape between his teeth to ensure he did not exceed the 20-feet limit.
Some other organisations also constructed pyramids that were more than
four tiers or exceeding 20 feet and even used minor boys to break the
Dahi Handi.
Among the highlights of the celebrations were
Maharashtra’s first all-blind team of Govindas from Nayan Foundation who
built a four-tier pyramid amidst huge applause by the gathering in
Dadar. Police moved swiftly in Thane to book at least 19 organisations
flouting the apex court orders, while the figures were being tabulated
in Mumbai on Thursday.
On Wednesday, a division bench of the
Supreme Court comprising Justice Uday U. Lalit and Justice L. Nageswara
Rao had upheld an earlier ruling of the Bombay High Court on the issue
of height restrictions and participation of teenagers below 18 years in
the Dahi Handi game.
The Bombay High Court orders of April 11, 2014, had come in response to a
PIL petition filed by social activist Swati S. Patil’s Utkarsh Mahila
Samajik Sanstha, citing injuries of Govindas when human pyramids came
crashing down.
IANS
MNS Chief Raj Thackeray warns autos with new permits will be set on fire
Parties want hate speech case against him
Maharashtra doesn’t belong to anyone's father: Bihar's Tejaswi Yadav
Mumbai: Raj Thackeray, a seasoned practitioner
of calls to target immigrant workers in Mumbai, must be punished for his
latest hate speech, some parties in Maharashtra have demanded.
Yesterday, Mr Thackeray said three-wheelers with new permits will be set
on fire because he alleged that nearly 70 per cent of the
auto-rickshaws recently cleared to run on Mumbai's roads belong to
non-Maharashtrians.
"If any such auto with a new permit is seen plying on the road, those
sitting inside will be asked to come out and the auto will be set on
fire," he said in a speech on the 10th anniversary of his party being
founded.[. . .] http://www.ndtv.com/mumbai-news/autos-driven-by-non-marathis-will-be-set-on-fire-says-raj-thackeray-1285622
The Bharatiya
Janata Party and its parivar have for years harped on the Congress’s
“minority appeasement”, identifying it as the hallmark of
“pseudo-secularism”. Majority appeasement is a different matter
entirely, if the time and effort the ruling party lavishes on Hindu
causes is anything to go by, but Sanghis are not averse to a little
minority propitiation of their own, provided the concerned community is a
suitable one. No minority is more suitable than the Jains, a reliable
source of votes and cash for the BJP for decades. And so it is that meat
sales have been banned for four days in Bombay and for eight in the
borough of Mira Road-Bhayander during the Jain festival of Paryushana.
In my last column, I
commended Jain reverence for life, but the meat ban demonstrates how
that reverence can become a tool for undermining the rights of others.
The ban already has the imprimatur of our Supreme Court, thanks to a
judgement handed down by Markandey Katju and HK Sema in 2008. Justice
Katju has described it as his most difficult case, in a blog post
written after his retirement. The Ahmedabad municipal corporation had
issued an order shutting slaughterhouses during Paryushana, which was
challenged by local butchers deprived of their livelihoods for nine days
each year. The High Court sided with the butchers, and Justice Katju
leaned their way as well, because, “it is one’s personal business what
one eats... the impugned resolution seemed to violate the rights of the
butchers as well as non-vegetarians”.
But he ultimately decided in favour of the municipal authorities, and has cited three reasons for his change of mind:
“(1)
The restriction was only for a short period of nine days. Had it been
for a longer period, say, for several months, I would certainly have
held it to be violative of Articles 19 (1) (g) and 21 of the
Constitution.
(2) There is a large Jain community in Western
India, including Ahmedabad, and in a country like India with such
tremendous diversity of religions, castes, languages, ethnic groups, etc
we must respect the feelings of all communities.
(3) The
restriction was not a new one, but had been imposed every year for
several decades. Reference was made in the judgment to Emperor Akbar and
his respect for the Jains.”
Freedom's just another word
In
the same blog post, Justice Katju calls himself a “strong votary for
freedom”, which goes to show that most Indians, even Supreme Court
justices, have a very deficient understanding of freedom. If Justice
Katju really believed in individual freedom, the case would have been an
open-and-shut one in favour of the plaintiffs, because no religious
community has a right to force its dogmas down the throats of
non-adherents. The length of the stay on slaughter ought to have been
irrelevant, for where can one draw the line once such impositions are
allowed? What is to stop Hindus from wanting to prohibit meat sales
during Shravan and Muslims from asking for eateries to close between
sunrise and sunset during Ramzan? The beliefs of a Mughal Emperor and
the previous history of the ban on slaughter were even less important in
considering the rights of those negatively affected by the prohibition.
Our
politicians, police and community leaders are always eager to use
religious sentiments as an excuse to restrict what Indians can do or say
or eat. Unfortunately, our constitution and judiciary, while more
liberal than these groups, are insufficiently committed to protecting
individual rights. As for the population at large, the majority is
comfortable with a “kindly adjust” approach to these issues. So,
liberals will rail against the new prohibition and news channels will
have loud discussions, all to no avail. Without recourse to the law,
which has already made up its mind, we have to fall back on community
standards, and gauge how much respect of this sort non-vegetarians will
tolerate. The good news is that the BJP may have overplayed its hand
with the extended Prayushana ban. The two Thackeray-led Marathi parties,
the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, have come out against it
and are likely to orchestrate blowback against the BJP.
A
vegetarian versus non-vegetarian fight has long simmered in Bombay,
thanks to the extremism of Jains and other affluent vegetarians, mainly
Hindu Gujaratis and Marwaris. The area covered by the zip code 40006,
one of the richest precincts in the entire country, comprising Nepean
Sea Road, Malabar Hill and Walkeshwar, has no restaurants that serve
non-vegetarian food, thanks to campaigns (including threats of violence)
by vegetarian zealots. Housing societies dominated by Jains and
vegetarian Gujaratis routinely block sales to prospective buyers who eat
meat. Since most Marathis are non-vegetarian, the Shiv Sena and its
ally the BJP have been on opposing sides in this tussle.
A new opportunity
In
November last year, the MNS moved a resolution in the municipal
corporation to ensure no builder refused to sell homes to
non-vegetarians. The resolution passed with support from all parties except the BJP. It hinted at an emerging Sena-MNS strategy to woo back their base.
For
years, the BJP in Maharashtra was considered a party of Jains,
Gujaratis and Marwaris, along with a smattering of RSS-type Marathi
Brahmins. Its voting bloc perfectly supplemented that of the Sena, and
it appeared largely content in its role as junior partner. Last year,
riding the Modi wave, it gained a majority in the state assembly,
grabbing gouts of Marathi votes from the Sena and MNS. The meat ban is
an opportunity for the Marathi parties to try putting the BJP back in
its Gujarati-Marwari box.
Interestingly, the extension of the ban
in Bombay from the usual two days to four has nothing to do with the
BJP, which doesn’t have a majority in the corporation. The municipal
commissioner Ajoy Mehta appears to have made that move himself, raising
the question of whether he caved to a powerful lobby or acted on a
personal bias. If it’s the latter, Mehta is unfit to stay commissioner
of a cosmopolitan city.
Sujit Mahamulkar, TNN | Jul 15, 2015, 07.36 AM IST
Followed by MNS wing in film industry, Maharashtra Navnirman Chitrapat Karmachari Sena, threatened to stir in 'MNS style', B4U Broadband India Private Ltd has cancelled its pan to exhibit the Pakistani film 'Bin Roye', accros the state.
MNS Chitrapat Sena chief Amey Khopkar had threatened to protest against Pakistani film exhibition in theaters in the state. "The MNS will not allow Pakistani film in Maharashtra while our soldiers are being killed by Pak on border," said Khopkar. MNS wrote a letter to the B4U on July 10, whereas on July 13, the company has replied, not to exhibit it in the state.
The Hindu
Op-Ed
Published: March 15, 2014 00:46 IST | Updated: March 15, 2014 00:46 IST
Sena versus Sena
Priyanka Kakodkar
Photos: PTI AND VIVEK BENDRE WARRING COUSINS: While Raj Thackeray has charisma and can hold a crowd spellbound, Uddhav Thackeray has stronger organisational skills and has retained key municipalities including Mumbai.
Both Raj and Uddhav Thackeray face challenges this Lok Sabha election. While for Uddhav, this is the first election after the death of his father, Raj faces a credibility crisis
In 2006, when he addressed his fledgling party’s very first rally, Raj Thackeray staked claim to his space in the State. “I am Maharashtra’s and Maharashtra is mine,” he declared, bowing his head to the cheering crowd.
He had split dramatically from the Shiv Sena founded by his uncle Bal Thackeray and formed his breakaway outfit, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). This was the outcome of years of frustration at being sidelined in favour of the supremo’s son, Uddhav Thackeray, despite once being considered Bal Thackeray’s natural heir. In a party intolerant of dissent, he was a rebel from within.
The two parties share the same ideologies of Hindutva and Marathi chauvinism, though Raj Thackeray is the hardline militant avatar. They even attract the same cadre of Marathi voters — ‘sons of the soil’ who feel displaced in a fast-changing and developing State. Yet they remain bitter political rivals because if they do not, they stand to lose their following to the other.
That is why few were surprised when Raj Thackeray announced his decision to contest the Lok Sabha election despite being requested not to by former Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari. “If the MNS did not contest the election, its cadre may have deserted the party to rejoin the Shiv Sena or even the Nationalist Congress Party which is now an alternative for young Marathi youth,” says Sandeep Pradhan, political editor of Maharashtra Times.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Raj Thackeray had shown the Shiv Sena the damage he could do. His party tore into the Shiv Sena-BJP vote, ensuring its defeat in nine of the State’s 48 constituencies. The MNS played a spoiler in Mumbai, Nasik, Bhiwandi, Pune and Thane. With MNS candidates dividing the saffron vote, it was the Congress-NCP candidates who won. In the Nasik and Mumbai South constituencies, the MNS placed second, ahead of the saffron alliance.
The rise of the son
From the 1980s to the mid-90s, it was Raj Thackeray who was groomed as Bal Thackeray’s political heir. He bore an uncanny resemblance to his uncle and shared his gift for oration and aggression. He led the party’s student wing, the Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena, which was at the forefront of agitations.
But Bal Thackeray later had a change of heart and went on to anoint his son. His reliance on Uddhav Thackeray had grown after Raj Thackeray got embroiled in the murder case of Mumbai tenant Ramesh Kini in the mid-1990s when the Shiv Sena-BJP government was in power in Maharashtra. He was later cleared of all charges.
Uddhav Thackeray began working with the party first through its newspaper Saamna. Over the years, especially after the alliance lost power in the State in 2000, he took control of the party by appointing his own men to its branches or shakhas. Raj Thackeray struck back by maintaining a parallel network of Vidyarthi Sena activists who were loyal to him.
However, with Bal Thackeray firmly backing his son, Raj Thackeray was forced to concede defeat. In 2003, he ended up proposing his cousin’s name as the party’s executive president, second only to Bal Thackeray. He later said that by doing this, he had “thrown the axe on my own foot.” His isolation soon escalated. He was not consulted on party matters and his men were denied party tickets. This made the split inevitable, especially after the 2004 State election, when the Shiv Sena-BJP combination was unable to return to power under Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership.
The bitterness still runs deep. In 2012, Raj Thackeray left his uncle’s funeral procession mid-way, reportedly because he felt excluded.
Mild-mannered and polite, Uddhav Thackeray had the unenviable task of stepping into his father’s shoes and competing against his flamboyant rabble-rousing cousin. He seemed nothing like a shiv sainik. While Raj Thackeray had charisma and could hold a crowd spellbound, Uddhav Thackeray’s speeches were laboured and forced.
Yet he had the advantage of his father’s backing and stronger organisational skills than his cousin. “Uddhav Thackeray has at least shown some consistency. He is not accessible and listens to a coterie, but devotes time to the organisation. He has undertaken regular tours and agitations. The party may not have come back to power in the State but it has retained key municipalities including Mumbai,” says Mr. Pradhan.
Under Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership however, the Shiv Sena’s equation with its alliance partner, the BJP, faltered. A key reason was that the BJP had become stronger and questioned the Shiv Sena’s role as the Big Brother in the alliance. In the 2009 Assembly polls, the BJP won two seats more than the Shiv Sena and began flexing its muscles.
Raj Thackeray symbolised the party’s belligerent pro-Marathi past and cast his party as the “real Sena.” He galvanised the cadre with a string of agitations against north-Indian migrants, leading to his arrest in 2008. In both the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in 2009, the party reaped rich dividends. It now has 13 MLAs in the State Assembly.
However, since then the MNS has largely been inactive, barring a half-hearted agitation against road tolls, leaving the organisation in disarray. The lukewarm response to even this agitation is seen as a sign of the party’s waning influence. The reason many say is Raj Thackeray’s lifestyle and his preference for comfort over the rigour of running the party machine.
The poll battle
Both leaders face key challenges this Lok Sabha election. For Uddhav Thackeray, this is the first election after the death of his father. Raj Thackeray faces a credibility crisis. He was accused of a deal with the Congress-NCP after he split the saffron vote in 2009. Now he is accused of a deal with the BJP after he announced he would back Narendra Modi for Prime Minister. Both parties stand to benefit from the anti-incumbency against the Congress-led government. But at the moment, Raj Thackeray is not expected to be the game-changer he was in 2009.
The BJP is fishing in these troubled waters for the gains it can make, riding on the Modi factor. Its overtures towards Raj Thackeray could well be an attempt to keep the Shiv Sena on the defensive or open the window for an alternative ally in the future. But the Shiv Sena has hit back at its ally. Mr. Gadkari’s intervention has turned the battle of Sena versus Sena more interesting.
priyanka. k@thehindu.co.in
Keywords: Lok Sabha elections 2014, Raj Thackeray, Uddhav Thackeray, Bal Thackeray, Shiv Sena, MNS, Hindutva, Marathi chauvinism, Marathi manoos, Raj-Uddhav spat, BJP
Printable version | Mar 17, 2014 10:31:51 PM | http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/sena-versus-sena/article5785494.ece
On Saturday, MNS corporator Geeta Chavan from ward 92, along with her supporters had an altercation with ALM activist Aftab Siddiqui in the H-west ward office in front of assistant commissioner Prashant Sapkal. The incident could have turned ugly had the BMC police and officials not come to the rescue of Ms Siddiqui who was targeted by the MNS activists for objecting to the illegal posters and banners being put up by them in Bandra, Khar and Santa Cruz.
Ms Chavan, however, refused to comment on the issue after confirming that there was a run-in with Ms Siddiqui in the ward office.
Speaking about the incident, Ms Siddiqui said that she had gone to the H-west ward office at around 2.30 pm to complain against the illegal banners and to support the ward office that was being targeted by MNS activists for implementing the Maharashtra Prevention of Defacement Act in the three areas.
“Chavan, along with 60-70 of her supporters barged into Mr Sapkal’s office and started abusing me and the officers for tearing down the posters put up by them on the occasion of Chavan’s husband’s birthday that falls on January 12. They tried to snatch my cellphone on which I had recorded their acts,” said Ms Siddiqui.
She added that the MNS workers asked her to delete the clips on her cellphone or else they would not allow her to leave the premises. “I handed my phone to one of them and asked them to delete the clip. I did so that no untoward thing happened to me or the officers,” said Ms Siddiqui.
Though Mr Sapkal was unavailable for comment, sources said that CCTV recordings of the house would be taken and reviewed after which a complaint would be lodged with the police.
Bandra police station senior inspector Ramchandra Dhawale confirmed the altercation between MNS activists and Ms Siddiqui, but added that neither had registered any case. Meanwhile, Ms Siddiqui was provided a police escort to her house after she refused to lodge a complaint with the Bandra police station. “The incident occurred in the BMC office so it is their prerogative to lodge a complaint,” said Ms Siddiqui.
Ms Chavan said she would give her side of the story only in person.
Mumbai Gangrape: Leaders condemn Raj Thackeray for raising migrants issue
PTI Posted online: Sat Aug 24 2013, 16:42 hrs
New Delhi : MNS chief Raj Thackeray, who is know for targeting north Indian migrants, has sparked a controversy yet again by blaming influx of outsiders for incidents like the recent rape of a photo journalist, with parties accusing him of politicising the issue.
Congress alleged that the MNS chief was trying to get "cheap political mileage".
"I think, he is again trying to politicise the issue to get cheap mileage. How can you say this? Mumbai police have nabbed one person and others are also likely to be nabbed," Union Minister Rajiv Shukla said.
Another party leader Sanjay Nirupam said that the statement by Thackeray is "completely uncalled for".
"When the city is going through such a painful crisis, there was no need to make any such political statement to hurt communities. Basically criminals are criminals. They don't belong to any community and there are criminals in each and every community. Because of some criminals, you cannot blame the whole community. I condemn this statement," Nirupam said.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad said that tough action should be taken against the perpetrators of the gangrape incident irrespective of whether outsiders are involved or insiders.
Reacting to Thackeray's remark that he will set things right once he takes charge of the state, Prasad said "people are not going give him the charge".
Senior Congress leader and Union Minister Salman Khurshid, said "this is not an occasion on which we should be deciding this," when asked about Thackeray's comment that the NCP-Congress government was not governing well.
"When elections take place, these matters are decided," he said.
Khurshid also dismissed the "outsiders" remark by Thackeray saying "these are very complicated issues. I do not think any single statement by anybody can give a full explanation to what is happening...I would not like to complicate the situation."
Thackeray had told a TV channel yesterday that the influx of outsiders is responsible for rise in such incidents, when asked about the brutal gangrape of a 23-year-old photojournalist on assignment in the heart of Mumbai on Thursday.
"If talented people like Harivansh Bachchan come to the city I am ready to roll out a red carpet for them but what will you do if there is an influx of criminals from everywhere to cities like Mumbai and Delhi. How will you check such incidents," Thackeray said.
He said there should be a check on influx into every city, not just Mumbai. "If you do not know who is coming and who is going out from the city... then such things will happen," he said, adding he had no hatred for people of any state but the "problem" had to be understood.
Khurshid said that the bottomline was that the incident was "extremely sad" and both short term and long terms measures must be found to address this.
Samajwadi Party MP Naresh Agrawal said that only tough laws cannot achieve everything and there is a need to change the social structure and thinking of people.
MNS, Shiv Sena thrash North Indians after baby raped in Kolhapur
Reported by Tejas Mehta, Edited by Abhinav Bhatt | Updated: August 13, 2013
Kolhapur: Shopkeepers and migrant workers in Kolhapur from North India were attacked today publicly by workers from the Shiv Sena and Raj Thackeray's MNS who were shouting slogans against North Indians.
Kolhapur_north_Indians_beaten_13Aug13_295_1.jpgTwo mobs of 50 people from each party armed with sticks said they were retaliating for the rape of a young baby on a construction site by a labourer from Jharkhand. An elderly man was kicked to the ground.
The police intervened and broke up the mob with batons but the city, 386 kilometres from Mumbai, remains tense.
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/mns-shiv-sena-thrash-north-indians-after-baby-raped-in-kolhapur-405315?pfrom=home-otherstories
Cut off hands of outsiders if they attack women: Raj
Yogesh Joshi, Hindustan Times
Pune, February 12, 2013
Continuing with his tirade against north-Indians, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray asked his party workers to cut off hands of those outsiders who are involved in assaults on women in Maharashtra.
March 12 was another sad day for the medical profession and the patient-doctor relationship in India. Photos and videos of
resident doctors being brutally beaten in a government hospital in
Maharashtra’s Dhule have been doing the rounds on social media. As
happens so often, the voices of agitating doctors will be given
temporary sympathetic ears by the public and by authorities, and then,
in a few days, things will go ‘back to normal’. Whether it is violence
against doctors in hospitals or against students on campus, we are a
society that never collectively condemns mob violence – and that has
perhaps been the most important reason we see such attacks happening
with increasing frequency and legitimacy.
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