Maha'raj'shtra

The Marathi manoos have given a thumbs up to their “saviour”. At least the few who came to vote. Though the 2009 Assembly elections have been a Congress-NCP show, Raj Thackeray’s parochial rhetoric has managed to discolour the state’s saffron flag-bearers, the Shiv Sena and BJP. In fact, the Raj phenomena seems to be slowly edging out the Sena spell.
In India, parties fight political battles using the deadliest of communal, caste and class weapons. But Raj Thackeray’s overdose of native spices seems to have cast a spell on the Marathi manoos, instilling fear and alienating “migrants”, specially from North India (read Bihar and Uttar Pradesh).
The Thackeray raj is here to stay. First, it was Balasaheb Thackeray whose claim to fame was the campaign against non-Maharashtrians for “usurping” jobs and opportunities from natives. Then Balasaheb wore saffron on his sleeve and widened his hate-campaign to include Muslims, who he felt were mostly from Bangladesh. By this, his Mumbai progressively destroyed the spirit of Bombay. Simultaneously, his scorching hate-Muslim speeches wrested the excitement of his Marathi manoos campaign.
But his estranged nephew, Raj Thackeray, wasted no time in bringing the Marathi manoos back on track, derailing the aspirations and chances of the Shiv Sena-BJP combine. Raj is here. His Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s boisterous rise has tamed the Sena tigers.
Raj’s sena went about wielding hate weapons at the north Indian working class, generating fear psychosis. The targets have been daily wagers, labourers, taxi drivers and roadside vendors. And his focus is Mumbai. But Mumbai is also home to giant corporate houses and super-rich entrepreneurs, most of them non-Maharashtrians. And, of course, the multi-crore Hindi film industry, run by Chopras, Kapoors, Khans and "the" Bachchans (of course none of them Marathis!) But the new Thackeray is not really serious about “evicting” this cash-rich class. A simple sorry and replacing Bombay with Mumbai in a movie dialogue is enough to massage his ego.
He has, instead, instilled this fear into the minds of the less fortunate. Raj’s sena has been blatantly encashing this post-dated Marathi votebank cheque, undersigning it with threat and violence. Or worse, he uses his ATM (any time Marathi) rhetoric. Raj’s cousin, the “original Shiv” scion, Udhav Thackeray, after his post-poll introspection, has said his Sena will back the old faithful Hindutva horse. Now the warring Senas have left the Marathi manoos confused and in a severe identity crisis.
In any case, the Indian voter stands confused and, therefore, exhausted and cynical. The Indian politician, in this custom-made democratic puzzle, has divided people along caste, religion and language, multiplied their vested interests, added multiple dimensions to their votebank and subtracted issues.
But the two Senas have left their Marathi manoos even more baffled. Earlier, he voted as a Hindu or a Muslim or as a caste member. Now the linguistic dimension has magnified his dilemma.
Leaders are reaching heady heights with empty rhetoric and loud parochial chest-thumping, distracting voters with superficial grandiloquence. And our politically illiterate and poor voter is being taken for a ride either on a communal saddle or on a linguistic one. Some horsing around this is.