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)
An election symbol lost, an Uddhav Shiv Sena that is no longer ‘Balasaheb’s party’
A
three-judge bench presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud
also extended the permission granted by ECI to the Shiv Sena (Uddhav
Balasaheb Thackeray) to retain its name and symbol ‘flaming torch’, till
further orders.
Supreme Court declines to stay ECI order on Shiv Sena; issues notice on Uddhav Thackeray’s plea challenging it
A three-judge
bench presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud also extended
the permission granted by ECI to the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb
Thackeray) to retain its name and symbol ‘flaming torch’, till further
orders.
Congress & Sainiks
By propping up Sena, Congress plays fast and loose with the mandate — and its projection of itself as secular and inclusive
Editorial
As the Congress moves towards sealing an alliance with the Shiv Sena, talks to it about a possible power-sharing arrangement in Maharashtra, along with Sharad Pawar’s NCP, it is a significant moment in its career which sends out consequential signals. Regardless of its own several compromises with the principle and practice of secularism, notwithstanding its many flirtations even with the Sena in different forms and levels in the past, an alliance with the Sena to rule Maharashtra now would be the Congress’s first major coalition with an openly saffron force. And the Sena is not just another party. Down the years, its politics has constructed the “Other” in belligerent ways, always picking on the vulnerable, the migrant now and then the minority. It has stood for a brand of politics that combines chauvinism, bigotry and intolerance with vigilantism and violence. By thinking of allying with the Sena, the Congress signals a willingness to be counted in the same frame with a political force it has, as a self-professedly inclusive party, defined itself in opposition to — after an electoral verdict, moreover, which relegated it to fourth place, and one, therefore, that scarcely gives it a mandate to rule.
Of course, the Congress might rationalise this moment by pointing to those same depleting numbers, and the realpolitik compulsion to keep the BJP out of power in a state that is home to the financial capital of the country. A government in Maharashtra in which the Congress participates with the Sena would not only twist the knife deeper between the Sena and BJP, but arguably also make an important dent in the BJP’s winning streak. At the same time, it would hold out the promise of spoils of power for its own demoralised workers. Yet, the Congress needs to weigh the costs of cosying with an outfit that has treaded a thin, grey edge in a polity governed by an inclusive constitution and the rule of law ever since it made attacks on South Indians and Communist cadres its calling card in the 1960s and ’70s. Since then, it has been cited and indicted for its instigation of, and involvement in, communal violence by impartial probes, most notably in the conflagration that consumed hundreds of lives in December 1992-January 1993, its role in which was recorded by the Srikrishna Commission report. The Shiv Sena owned up to its role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. It has been known to dig up the cricket pitch to prevent the Pakistani team from playing in Mumbai. It has aggressively and brutishly targeted the media when it has been criticised, and shown no compunction in violently turning on its own, in case of disagreement or dissent.
It is no secret that the Congress is beset with a grave crisis in a BJP-dominated polity, in which it is called upon to redefine what it stands for. At a time like this, an alliance with the Shiv Sena, no matter what the common minimum programme may be, raises serious questions for political stability and governance in Maharashtra. It will also resonate beyond in other states where elections are due.
When Bal Thackeray Was Disenfranchised for Far Less Than Modi's Polarising Politics
In December 1987, while campaigning for Shiv Sena candidate Ramesh Prabhu, Thackeray had made several hate speeches for which he was later benched for six years by the judiciary and the EC.
Mumbai: With all else, including the air strikes against Pakistan, failing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to communalise the ongoing elections in the country.
Elsewhere, he berated the Congress for describing a section of terrorists in India as ‘saffron terrorists’.
So far, the Election Commission’s response has been wanting. This is especially clear to see from how the Shiv Sena, an ally of the BJP in the present election, paid the price for less than this in the 1980s and 1990s when the EC barred Bal Thackeray and his candidate Dr Ramesh Prabhoo from contesting polls for six years. The two were also disenfranchised for the same amount of time.
Campaigning for Prabhoo, who had been his physician since the early 1970s, Thackeray had called Muslims names and appealed to Hindus to vote for a fellow Hindu at a by-election for the Maharashtra assembly in December 1987.
As
the ripples of the Bhima Koregaon clashes spread throughout Mumbai,
everyone is asking the same question — how did the violence begin? On
Monday, an FIR was filed against two men
— Milind Ekbote from Samast Hindu Aghadi and Sambhaji Bhide of Shiv
Pratishthan Hindustan for sparking stone-pelting and the subsequent
violence.
But who are the men at the center of the violence
against Dalits in Maharashtra and the ensuing chaos in the state? Here's
a quick look.
Known
as 'Bhide Guruji' by his followers, 85-year-old Sambhaji Bhide is no
stranger to controversy. In 2008, he led the protests against Ashutosh
Gowariker's historical romance film Jodhaa Akbar, and was
booked for ransacking theaters and halting screenings of the movie. A
year later, he sparked unrest in Sangli in Maharashtra over the
depiction of an "artist's impression of assassination of Adil Shah's
army commander Afzal Khan by Shivaji Maharaj", reportsMumbai Mirror.
When Prime Minister Modi visited Sangli, also Bhide's hometown, in 2014, he praised Bhide and is reported to have said,
“I did not come to Sangli on my own, but I was given orders by Bhide
Guruji to visit his city, and here I am.” Here’s a video of PM Modi
speaking about Sambhaji Bhide. (Note: The Quint is unable to independently verify the authenticity of the attached video.)
A
physicist by training, Bhide completed his MSc in nuclear physics and
was a professor of physics at Pune's Fergusson College. Later, he joined
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a pracharak and founded an
organisation called "Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan." Shiv Pratishthan
Hindustan focuses on spreading the teachings and information on the life
of Shivaji Maharaj and his son Sambhaji Maharaj. Despite his age, Bhide
has a significant following among the young in areas like Sangli,
Kolhapur and Satara and has an impressive social media following on Facebook.
56-year-old
Milind Ekbote has been in an out of power in Pune, as a BJP and Shiv
Sena corporator. His first stint was in 1997, when he was a BJP
corporator in the city. In 2002, he was denied a ticket, and lost the
election on an independent ticket. But with his organisation, 'Hindu
Ekta Manch' in 2007, he came into prominence by leading protests against
Valentine's Day. He has 12 cases of rioting, trespassing and other
charges against him, out of which he has been convicted in five, reports
Mumbai Mirror.
Responding
to the Bhima Koregaon violence, Ekbote has issued a statement where he
says he is “saddened by the inconvenience caused to Dalits due to
rioting after their visit to Bhima Koregaon”, and has condemned “the act
of rioting,” reports The Indian Express. Commenting on Dr BR Ambedkar, he added that he considers them as “icons.”
A Gurgaon Court on Sunday granted bail to the six men who were arrested
for disrupting a namaz in an open field in the city’s Sector 53 on April
20. The men had obstructed the Friday prayers by arriving at the scene
minutes before they commenced, and chanting “Jai Sri Ram” and “Radhe
Radhe” while directing worshippers to disperse from the spot.
[ . . . ]
Despite bail being granted to the six men, right wing outfits in the
city, however, have decided to hold a demonstration on Monday, demanding
that the case against the men be revoked and a ban on reading of namaz
in the open be imposed.
“Two of our causes still hold. Since only the demand of the men
getting bail has been granted, we will continue with the protest that we
had planned for Monday morning.” Abhishek Gaur, district president of
Bajrang Dal, said.
The demonstration is expected to see the presence of office bearers and workers from multiple outfits, including the Shiv Sena,
Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Kranti Dal, Hindu Sena, and Swadeshi Jagran Manch,
all of who have come together under the ambit of the Sanyukt Hindu
Sangharsh Samiti, a committee formed to fight for this cause.
Protesters will gather at Kamla Nehru Park at 10 am and march to the
mini secretariat, where they will hand over their list of demands to the
deputy commissioner.
POLITICAL parties and other outfits that are based on
the cult of personality and divorced from a political programme pose a
threat to democracy. Despite being recently sentenced to 20 years
imprisonment for a rape case reported in 2002, the head of the Dera
Sucha Sauda, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, still commands an enormous
following.
What concerns the workings of democracy is
how he could evoke such fierce loyalties. He could not have amassed
millions and acquired the power and influence he did but for political
help. Once he acquired some following, leaders of political parties
flocked to his doorstep to seek his support during elections. He
variedly offered help to BJP, Shiromani Akali Dal and Congress. His help
to BJP in 2014 reflected shrewd political judgement.
Gurmeet
Singh exploited the people’s poverty, the state’s neglect of the poor,
underprivileged and the wronged — and on their susceptibility to
religious appeals and claims to faith healing. He provided food,
subsidised ration and money to the poor. He also fostered a feeling of
equality among the Dalits by asking followers to adopt the title of
‘Insaan’ and forsake their surnames, which reveal a person’s caste
identity. Dera Sucha Sauda appealed to women particularly with its
strong stand against liquor and drug abuse, which had played havoc with
families. People found equality and dignity in its ranks denied to them
elsewhere. Free medical aid was supplemented with faith healing; the
Baba’s blessings or healing touch. His success provides proof of the
state’s failure to do its duty — in crime detection, poverty
alleviation, provision of medical and other services and, not least, in
wiping out rampant caste discrimination.
India’s religious right exploits faith.
A far more instructive parallel is the Shiv Sena in
Maharashtra. Set up in 1966 by a cartoonist, Bal Thackeray, it sought to
arouse and exploit a feeling of discrimination among the
Marathi-speaking people of the state. They felt insulted at the delay in
conceding their just demand for the inclusion of Mumbai in Maharashtra.
It began as a movement against South Indians, accusing them of
monopolising jobs in the city; moved against Gujaratis gingerly; and
settled on the more promising plank of Hindutva against Muslims.
Thackeray’s resort to violence remained unchecked. He was also courted
by some industrialists and businessmen to curb communist influence in
trade unions, as well as by prominent Bollywood figures and politicians.
Shiv Sena is in coalition with BJP in Maharashtra.
Censures of an inquiry commission on the killings during the Mumbai
riots after the demolition of Babri Masjid did not affect Shiv Sena or
its leader — nor did the Central Bureau of Investigation’s citation of
Thackeray as an accused in the demolition case. For years, successive
Congress state governments have turned a blind eye to Shiv Sena’s
recourse to violence and its politics of intimidation.
One
of the most insightful studies of this outfit is by German scholar
Julia Eckert in her book, The Charisma of Direct Action. Eckert writes
of how electoral results reveal that “the Shiv Sena has been stagnating
at a certain percentage of votes for several years, these turning into
victories or into defeat depending on its opponents’ strategies”. These
opponents hardly oppose. Its technique is to work in three spheres — the
political realm, the street and homes. “Direct action replaces
parliamentary politics and is considered to be superior in efficiency
and moral rectitude.”
Shiv Sena set up an ambulance
service in 1968. Many shakhas (branches) have their own ambulance and
use it for various purposes. Shiv Sena activists organised ‘cleanup’
drives and medical camps; put pressure on the municipality on behalf of
the wards for water connections and other civic amenities. “The shakhas
organise leisure activities and training in vocational skills for young
people. Rooms have been made available for school studies and
preparation for examinations.” They offer assistance with job
applications, school admissions, and other formalities which require
recommendations. They also step in with advice and support when there
are illnesses, births, deaths, or marriages. “Sometimes funds are
collected to meet emergency situations in a family.” Women activists
help to resolve “cases of marital unrest, dowry quarrels, wife-beating,
alimony and other issues”.
Issues resolved range from
quarrels about the rights to a specific location of a hawker’s stall,
disputes over garbage sites, noise pollution, petty crime and cheating,
to litigations over loans and property, to real estate disputes.
Like
Dera Sucha Sauda, Shiv Sena steps in where the state has failed. Its
work is translated into votes. Democracy suffers by the activities of
such bodies and the failure of the democratic state to do its duty by
the people. The political process is fouled. Politics cease to revolve
around issues of public policy.
The writer is an author and lawyer based in Mumbai.
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.
Keralites Will Give ‘Kiss of Love’ After Sena Men Beat Couples
Akriti Paracer&Anthony Rozario
The Shiv Sena, who notoriously witchunt couples on Valentine’s
Day, took to Kochi’s Marine Drive on Women’s Day and beat up couples.
When asked onCNN
News18 why they they took the law into their hands, Hari Kumar from
Kerala’s Shiv Sena claimed that there is an ongoing sex racket in the
state, from which they were trying to protect the couples.
We tipped off the police but they took no
action, so we did what we did. We only treated them the way teachers
treat children in schools.
The party workers also allegedly took photos of the couples, hurled abuses at them after beating them up with saffron sticks.
Police did not intervene and just stood by as the assaults happened.
The ‘Kiss of Love’ protest which happened in 2014 will take to Marina Drive in Kerala, after this incident came to light.
Police have said that six Shiv Sena activists have been taken into custody, according to Manorama.
On
Thursday morning, the Opposition hit out in the Assembly lambasting the
police for not taking action despite having prior information about the
Sena’s activities. Kerala’s CM Pinarayi Vijayan admitted that it was a
lapse on the police’s part as Financial Express reported.
The
police commissioner of Kochi suspended Vijayashankar, sub-inspector of
Central Station, who was on duty when the assaults happened. The other
police personnel who were present have been transferred to AR Camp, as The News Minute reported.
As the notes of the BJP’s celebratory
tutari (traditional trumpet) die down, the true import of its capture of
eight of 10 major civic bodies in Maharashtra and its stunning showing
in Mumbai will begin to sink in for the third most urbanised state in
the country. What exactly does its campaign plank of ‘development and
transparency’ mean for citizens of these local bodies? In
the last 25 years, as the Shiv Sena engineered the bloody
transformation of Bombay to Mumbai, BJP was confined to playing second
fiddle. Today, Shiv Sena is on the defensive. BJP’s win has also
rendered the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress
superfluous in civic politics in the rest of Maharashtra.
The difference of two between Shiv Sena and BJP in the final tally in
Mumbai indicates more than just the inroads the latter has made into
the votes of the former. For a more business-oriented younger generation
of Shiv Sainiks, Valentine’s Day or Pakistani actors in Bollywood are
non-issues. But BJP benefited from the split in Marathi votes and
consolidated the considerable Gujarati and north Indian vote in Mumbai.
The blatant in-fighting among Congress satraps, cynical deployment of
candidates with criminal records and role of money and muscle power
were other factors that definitely worked in BJP’s favour. Now, more
than ever, it is important to examine the BJP’s developmental vision for
urban Maharashtra. This
election witnessed an incredibly acrimonious election campaign in which
Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray dubbed demonetisation as Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s nuclear bomb to attack citizens! But Sena’s
breakup with BJP occurred over seat sharing – it was willing to give BJP
only 60 seats – not development. Today,
we are none the wiser about the developmental vision of Shiv Sena. Or,
indeed, that of any of the three parties that got a drubbing in these
elections. Over the past 25 years of Shiv Sena ruling the country’s
wealthiest municipal corporation, development has eluded Mumbai. In
fact, the near total breakdown of basic infrastructure was not even an
issue in these elections. Nor was the all-important Development Plan for
Mumbai 2034. For
BJP, ‘development’ is the catchword for mega, multi-crore projects. Its
Mission Mumbai programme announced last year listed out projects worth
Rs 1 lakh crore for infrastructure projects that ranged from the
controversial expansion of the Mumbai metro and the coastal road, the
trans-harbour link to water reuse and recycling, solid waste management,
water transport and port and jetty construction.
Of Maharashtra’s 10 cities chosen for the Union government’s smart
cities project (with Rs 100 crore for each city) – Navi Mumbai, Nashik,
Thane, Greater Mumbai, Amravati, Solapur, Nagpur, Kalyan-Dombivali,
Aurangabad and Pune – seven went to the polls. There’s a lot of money
riding in these mesmeric, multi-crore, ‘mega’ development projects.
But the obligatory responsibility of any civic administration to
provide affordable housing, health, education, water, sanitation, roads,
pavements, parks, public transport and a pollution-free environment
have become unfashionable and passé in a neo-liberal world. Mumbai
witnessed huge fires in dumping grounds that raged for several weeks. A
recent study by IIT Bombay found that deaths due to air pollution in
Mumbai and Delhi doubled over the last 25 years.
There is no guarantee for even the provision of a simple civic
service like pothole free roads, leave alone accountability for deaths
due to bad roads and potholes. The result of the current civic elections
in Maharashtra needs to be viewed in the context of this abysmal state
of affairs in civic facilities.
BJP, it has been said, succeeded because it managed to articulate a
meta narrative of nationhood and anti-corruption, both at the national
and the state level, coupled with the promise of this mega development
at the level of civic and urban local bodies. Shiv Sena tried, towards
the fag end of its campaigning, to throw in its support for the
environmental struggle against the Metro III project of the people of
Aarey colony.
But as it painted itself into a corner, this seemed like an
afterthought. None of the BJP’s rivals, from Congress, NCP or Shiv Sena,
were able to tackle or even to counter its meta narrative.
It was clearly a missed opportunity. In the coming days, there will
be the inevitable jockeying for alliances and control of Mumbai but we
all know who’s afraid of the ‘D’ word. As also the ordinary citizen, for
very different reasons.
A new saffron bloom in the Valley: The other Shiv Sena is making its presence felt in Kashmir
The Shiv Sena Hindustan says it seeks justice for all Kashmiris.
On
February 9, a quiet meeting was underway in North Kashmir’s Nawgam
village. As the Valley rang with strike calls to commemorate the death
anniversary of Afzal Guru – hanged four years ago for his involvement in
the attack on Parliament in 2001 that left nine people and five
terrorists dead – about 30 villagers gathered in the house of a member
of the Shiv Sena Hindustan. It was a gathering of office-bearers of the
right-wing Hindu outfit who were visiting the village on a recruitment
drive.
In a corner of a room in the house, supporters had unfurled
two saffron flags bearing the party’s logo – a roaring tiger inscribed
on a map of India. The host served plates of fried chicken, tea and
biscuits.
As the meeting began, one of the villagers asked about
the party constitution. It is not against any community and functions
within the ambit of the Indian Constitution, he was told. Next, they
asked what the organisation would do for the sacrifices made by the
villagers. They will be reciprocated, they were assured.
It was a
carefully scripted show. The party’s Kashmir president, Abdul Khaliq
Bhat, and Bandipora district president Mohammad Yusuf Shugnoo were out
to woo the villagers. Bhat spoke of political mistrust between the
public and mainstream parties in Kashmir, and about the lack of
amenities in Nawgam.
Talking development
The
pitch had been planned at a party meeting in Srinagar earlier that
week. About a dozen members had crowded into an airless room in a
building guarded by paramilitary personnel. This was Bhat’s
government-provided accommodation.
Shugnoo had then said that
the village had no medical facilities, water or roads. A hospital there
had been defunct since its construction over a decade ago, and drinking
water had to be brought from a well more than a kilometre away, he
elaborated. The party would pitch for development work, he added.
“If our problems are solved by the Shiv Sena [Hindustan], we will stay
with it, or else we will leave it,” he said pragmatically.
Ghulam Mohammad Dar, a young worker who joined the outfit on February 2,
put it differently. “We want an end to the zulm we are facing,” he
said, using a word that often describes any kind of injustice in the
Valley. Dar had his own definition for it, though – widespread
corruption, unemployment, and lack of amenities.
The room had
filled with smoke from a hookah the workers took turns to smoke. They
spoke of their reasons for joining the party and the barrage of threats
they had received from Kashmiris online because of the perception that
the outfit is anti-Muslim.
The other Shiv Sena
This Punjab-based, self-professedly hardcore right-wing Hindu party
claims to be an offshoot of the Mumbai-based Shiv Sena. It shot to prominence
after it launched a Dharam Oudh Morcha in 2005, prompting the state
government to prepare a compensation package for Hindu victims of
militancy in Punjab.
According to its national president, Pawan
Gupta, they split from the Shiv Sena because the Thackerays – Uddhav
Thackeray, who heads the party, and his late father Bal Thackeray before
him – were too focused on Maharashtra, leaving little scope for
expansion.
“The Mumbai-based Shiv Sena is powerful, yet they
couldn’t step into the Valley,” Gupta said proudly. “Even if they have a
government in the country, we have set ideological foot in the
Valley,” he added, referring to the Shiv Sena being a part of the
Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance that is in power
at the Centre.
According to Gupta, the Shiv Sena Hindustan is
currently active in 18 states and has had a presence in Jammu for over
seven years. It entered the Kashmir Valley a little over a year ago, and
on February 2, it claimed to have recruited 200 members there, all of
them from Nawgam. On February 9, they said at least 200 more had joined
the party in Kashmir.
But on the face of it, Nawgam seemed
largely indifferent to the outfit’s overtures, though a few residents
had gathered for the meeting.
It was on Bhat’s proposal that the
party made its foray into the Valley. “How will somebody from the Valley
want to join Shiv Sena [Hindustan]?” had been Gupta’s initial thought.
But after a year of discussions, they concluded that Bhat’s ideology
fit in with the party’s.
Gupta does not shy away from saying that
he heads a “Hinduvadi” party. “How can we turn away from our
organisation and it’s base?” he asked. But he does not see why Muslims
cannot be a part of it. “If the Muslim community has a problem and it
is wrongly tackled, as a political party, we will raise that issue so
that injustice is not done to anyone.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_fzs77OHoI
India, not Pakistan
The
Shiv Sena Hindustan strikes a careful balance in the Valley. On the one
hand, it shows sympathy for Kashmiris who have faced injustices, and
even for separatists. On the other, it asserts its nationalist
credentials.
Not long before the outfit announced its sudden
success with recruitments, national vice-president Rajesh Kesari made a
trip to the Valley. During his visit, he asserted that Hizbul
Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani – whose death in an encounter with
security forces in July had led to months of unrest in Kashmir – had
become a militant after his older brother, Khalid Wani, was killed in
April 2015.
“Burhan Wani is not a terrorist, this government
is,” Kesari told the Kashmiri press in December. He said Khalid Wani
was a civilian but the Army had called him an overground worker for the
militant group. The government’s announcement in December of compensation for Khalid Wani’s death hinted at differences between the establishment, he alleged.
“An FIR should be lodged against the government and the chief minister
who killed such innocent people,” Kesari said. He also demanded
compensation of Rs 50 lakhs for all those killed in the unrest. “Whoever
has died here will be called shaheed [martyr],” he added.
But
in stark contrast to his approach, Bhat and his supporters have made a
point of displaying their pro-India credentials. Before joining the Shiv
Sena Hindustan, Bhat had approached another Jammu-based regional party
but that did not work out for him. In 2008, he
contested the Assembly elections on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket from
Chadoora in Budgam and lost. He, along with some others in the party,
have also aided security forces in counter-insurgency operations in the
past.
“Grief led me to join hands with the forces to avenge my brother’s death,” said Bhat, whose brother was killed by militants.
The
other members cited similar reasons for helping the security forces
tackle militancy in the 1990s – grief and a desire to avenge the death
of family members. Among them was Ghulam Muhammad, a party worker from
Nawgam. In 1991, his brother was killed for allegedly working with the
Army. A year later, militants killed his nephew on suspicion of being an
informer. Muhammad said he had worked for the security forces for
seven years in the 1990s. “It’s only natural that we will join a
pro-India party,” he added.
According to him, his faith does not
come in the way of this nationalist sentiment. “Whether they call god
Shiva and we Allah, it doesn’t matter,” he explained. “Our nation is
India. We are not Pakistanis.”
Supporters in Srinagar echoed him. “We are all Indians,” they chanted, when asked what they thought of integration with India.
Most
of Bhat’s supporters in the Valley are drawn from the Shia community.
He pointed out that Shia Muslims in Pakistan face attacks on a daily
basis. “We do not want to be with those who bomb everyone,” he said.
Another shade of saffron
With
its political ambitions in Kashmir growing, the Shiv Sena Hindustan
sees itself in competition with another saffron party, the Bharatiya
Janata Party, which is in a ruling alliance with the People’s Democratic
Party since the Assembly elections in 2014. Since then, fears of a
“saffron agenda” have grown in Kashmir.
But the Shiv Sena
Hindustan’s national president, Pawan Gupta, was quick to point out that
unlike the BJP, his party does not work on the condition that it will
join hands only with Hindus. He also said that while the BJP speaks of
bringing Kashmiris into the national mainstream, the Shiv Sena Hindustan
has actually done this. “Now people who join the Shiv Sena
[Hindustan], who can be more national mainstream than them?” he asked.
While
the Shiv Sena Hindustan may claim to have done more in the Valley than
the BJP, the national party has devoted considerable energy to making
inroads in Kashmir. In December 2015, its newly elected state president,
Sat Sharma, declared that they would not “play second fiddle” to its ally, the Peoples Democratic Party.
Veer Saraf, the BJP’s organising secretary for South Kashmir, has also
claimed that people still have faith in the BJP despite discontent with
the ruling alliance and over last year’s unrest. “It [BJP] is the first
party, which started its political activities publicly after the
unrest, not in the rooms... on the roads of Srinagar,” he said.
On January 11, the BJP held a torch rally in Srinagar
celebrating the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanada. And on Republic
Day, it held a procession during which pro-India slogans were raised,
and carried the national flag to Pampore to “commemorate the martyrs of
the EDI [encounter].” The three-day gunbattle
at the Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute last
year had left five soldiers and three foreign terrorists dead. The
Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha's Republic Day programme in Kashmir. Image
Credit: Aijaz Hussain (BJYM vice-president) /Facebook“We
will do many more programmes of such kind in Kashmir,” Saraf said. The
party plans to organise two to three programmes in the Valley every
month. “We are working on that and we will do it [again] on certain
occasions,” he added.
For now, both the Shiv Sena Hindustan and the BJP are eyeing the panchayat elections, scheduled for March.
Perils of the mainstream
But
in Kashmir, being part of mainstream parties, especially saffron
organisations, still comes with risks. Between 2011 and 2014, militants killed
at least 10 sarpanches in the Valley, leading to large-scale
resignations by panchayat members. During last year’s unrest too, public
anger was directed at security forces as well as mainstream parties.
Then too, several sarpanches and panchayat office holders had resigned
from the political parties they belonged to – or from the panchayats,
though this form of resignation was largely symbolic as their terms had
expired before the violence began.
The state police anticipate another round of unrest this spring.
The
Shiv Sena Hindustan is clearly worried. Bhat, who has been allotted a
personal security officer and secure accommodation, complained about the
lack of security.
On the face of it, the BJP is unfazed. “[We
have] not worked against the interests of Kashmir,” Saraf said. But he
admitted, “There may have been an incident or two but the whole of
Kashmir was burning.” The party, he said, has a plan to “safeguard our
people”, but refused to divulge details.
Hindutva outfits seek ban on Sunburn festival
Sunburn was being organised in Goa annually for the last nine years, but the Goa government’s ban forced the organisers to shift the venue to Pune this time.
By: Express News Service | Pune | Published:December 13, 2016 3:55 am
Describing it as against Indian culture, Hindutva outfits in the city have come together to protest against Sunburn electronic dance music festival, which will be held at Kesnand on Pune-Ahmednagar highway. The outfits claimed that the festival promotes consumption of narcotic substances and obscene activities.
Sunburn was being organised in Goa annually for the last nine years, but the Goa government’s ban forced the organisers to shift the venue to Pune this time.
Watch What Else Is making News
Members from the women’s wing of the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, Shiv Sena, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, besides other Hindutva groups, on Monday protested in front of the Lokmanya Tilak statue in Mahatma Phule Mandai. They distributed pamphlets, shouted slogans and started a signature campaign against the festival.
Pratiksha Korgaonkar, state organiser of Ranragini, said, “In 2009, a girl died at Sunburn in Goa due to drug overdose… Such events mislead the youth.”
Sarita Ambike of VHP’s Durga Vahini said, “We should not allow western events like Sunburn festival to take place in Pune, which is the cultural and educational capital of the country.”
Sunburn CEO Karan Singh said, “We do nothing illegal…. We work very closely with all government authorities to ensure a safe event.”
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.
