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Shiv Sena and its "spontaneous" response

Kalpana Sharma

Sunday's violence in Mumbai merely reiterates the party's true nature.

ON SUNDAY, the Shiv Sena found a way to remind Mumbai and Maharashtra that it is not a spent force despite the internal haemorrhaging triggered first by Narayan Rane's exit from the party and followed by Raj Thackeray breaking away and forming a separate party.

The police are still investigating the incident that led to Sunday's protests. But according to initial reports, two Shiv Sainiks, out on a morning walk in Shivaji Park discovered that the statue of Meenatai Thackeray, the late wife of Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray, had been smeared with mud. They claim they had gone towards her statue to prostrate themselves in front of it because Sainiks revere her as they would their mother. This was around 6 a.m. They immediately called up Sena leader Manohar Joshi and the former Mumbai Mayor, Vishakha Raut, who arrived on the spot an hour later. They then informed the police who took note of the complaint.

The only "eye-witness," report some newspapers, was a homeless destitute who slept in the vicinity of the statue. He claims three men "dressed in black" woke him up around 4-30 a.m. and asked him to move. He moved and slept somewhere else. Now he says he is "sure" that it was these three who put mud on the statue. The police, on the other hand, say there can be no case as there is no way to establish who smeared the mud.

Within an hour of Mr. Joshi informing the police, a "spontaneous" crowd of Shiv Sainiks landed up. Amongst other things, they proceeded to attack a nearby police chowki for not "protecting" the statue, burnt a private bus parked nearby, and generally vent their spleen in an area that is, in any case, their stronghold. And unwittingly, perhaps, the electronic media gave a helping hand by giving the protests a larger-than-life feel by repeat telecasts of limited footage. The visual of the burning bus, for instance, was seen through the day even though only one such bus had been set on fire and that too, in the morning.

Uddhav's `ultimatum'

While this typical Sena activity was going on around Shivaji Park and in a few other areas in Mumbai, the party's executive president, Uddhav Thackeray, issued an "ultimatum" to the State Government to catch the culprits within 24 hours. He said: "If the culprits are not booked within 24 hours, the State Government should be ready to face the consequences."

Fortunately, both the police and the Government have kept their cool. And in a sense called the Sena's bluff. What could these so-called "consequences" be? In the past, the Sena's favourite tactic was to hold Mumbai to ransom by forcing a "bandh." All shops and establishments would be compelled to close, schools and colleges would declare a holiday rather than risk students being exposed to violence, and even though buses and trains would run, they would be forced to stop at some point. Private car owners would either step out very early, before the Sainiks got out, or not go out at all.

The Government knows that the Sena is now not in a position to call a bandh. Just last year, the Bombay High Court made the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party pay Rs.20 lakh each as a fine for calling a bandh in 2003 to protest the Ghatkopar bomb blasts. This was in response to a public interest litigation that argued that such bandhs led to huge losses to business and individuals.

Secondly, the Government also knows that the Sena has no case to make. Meenatai's statue was erected by the party. It is not an official monument. Also, as Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil pointed out, when the BJP and Shiv Sena were in power in the State, they had passed a government resolution (GR) requiring people who erected statues in memory of some individual to also look after them. In other words, it is not the duty of the State to take care of such statues. It has its hands full looking after national monuments or statues commemorating national heroes. So Meenatai's statue should have been guarded and cared for by the Shiv Sena. This GR, incidentally, was brought in after the July 11, 1997, incident in Ramabai Nagar, a predominantly Dalit slum in a Mumbai suburb, where a statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was discovered one morning with a garland of chappals. In the ensuing protests and clashes with the police, 10 persons were killed in police firing and a dozen injured.

By claiming that Sunday's anti-social actions by its cadres were a "spontaneous" outburst, the Shiv Sena is not fooling anyone. The timing of the outburst is also rather obvious. The State Assembly is holding its monsoon session and the municipal elections are just a few months away, early next year.

Currently, the Sena is in the majority in the municipal corporation but given the splits in the party, few believe that it can win again. This so-called spontaneity merely reiterates the true nature of the Sena, a party that has run out of ideas and issues.

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