Forgive me, but I shed no tear….

21 year old Shaheen held for Facebook Post questioning Mumbai ‘Bal Thackeray Shutdown’. A friend held for ‘liking’ the same post. Shocking. What is not shocking is local Shiv Sainiks going on a rampage and damaging the girl’s uncle’s clinic.

With the news of Thackeray’s death spreading, businesses pulled their shutters, people rushed home, police and security personnel went in a tizzy and the P.M of the country appealed for calm. That to me is a pretty damning statement on the brand of politics that Mr. Bal Thackeray practiced during his life time.  He was not assassinated. He died peacefully. Yet, the whole of Mumbai was apprehensive, anxious and fearful about what the Shiv Saininks might do. The apprehension and fear of course was not unfounded going by their history.

The romantic in me finds it difficult not to make comparisons of Bal Thackeray to Mario Puzo’s Godfather. Just like the Don, Vito Corleone, Thackeray seems to have had a solution to everyone’s problems. He ran a parallel justice system. He could ‘fix’ things. As a result, the inevitable visit to his residence, Matoshree. From billionaire industrialists to powerful politicians; Bollywood Superstars to pretty damsels in distress. They all paid homage to the Godfather of Mumbai. Just like the Don though, Thackeray was shrewd and had a ruthless streak in him. He was a consummate politician who saw an opportunity to turn the anger of Maharashtrian youth against the migrants from other states, into votes.

Bal Thackeray launched Shiv Sena with the sole purpose of protecting the interests of Marathi Manoos. He first directed his ire towards the South Indian’s. Particularly the Shetty’s, who had a strangle hold on the Restaurant business in Mumbai. His next target were the Communists who controlled the powerful labour unions in the mills of Mumbai. Finally he moulded himself as a champion of Hindutva.

He had the occasional tiff with Bollywood and of course cricket matches against Pakistan was a strict no-no. Lately migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and artistes from Pakistan working in Mumbai’’s film studio’s were his favorite targets. Icons like Dilip Kumar (for his refusal to return the Nishan-I-Pakistan award), Shabana Azmi (for the film Fire), Shahrukh Khan (My Name is Khan) and recently Asha Bhosle (for playing judge on a reality show which included Pakistani artistes) came under his attack. He and the Shiv Sena had taken to moral policing. All along, violence, intimidation and blackmail were the tools employed to make the opposition bow down to the Sena command. A few uncharitable commentators said it was all designed to extort money from the business community and that extortion was his real calling and not politics.

His fiery oratory instigated many a youth to run riot. The Shiv Sena have been held responsible for a number of riots that took place in Maharashtra from the time Shiv Sena was launched. But it was the 1993 Bombay riots that gained Bal Thackeray national notoriety. After the Babri Masjid demolition, on 1^st of Jan 1993 there was an article in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece, Saamna under the caption "Hindunni Akramak Vhayala Have" (Hindus must be aggresive now), openly inciting Hindus to violence. 900 people lost their lives. Crores of Rupees worth of business destroyed. The Srikrishna Commission squarely blamed the Shiv Sena for the riots and indicted Bal Thackeray.

The Shiv Sena threatened to burn Mumbai if the supposedly long hands of the law ever caught up with Thackeray. The threat was taken seriously by successive governments in Maharashtra. No government was able to bring Thackeray to a court of law to answer for his crimes.

But the ultimate insult to law abiding citizens of this country has to be the State funeral that was given to Bal Thackeray. What kind of message does this send out to people? It says, you can p**s on our laws as long as you can scare the c**p out of us. You can get away with murder and arson as long as you can threaten to do more of the same. The message this Diwali of triumph of good over evil is a good bed time story fit only for innocent children.