Anger On The Tracks

Purvanchal leaders (from Bihar and eastern UP)—regardless of affiliation—united to denounce the MNS, demanding stern action against its leader Raj Thackeray and his rampaging hordes. Their Maharashtrian counterparts—also cutting across political lines—range from being supportive (of MNS) to being ambivalent.

Indeed, it was this ambivalence that delayed action against Raj. "The Congress-NCP government was eventually compelled to act," a Congress functionary told Outlook, "because it was accused of colluding with the MNS." As Shiv Sena MP Mohan Rawle said bluntly, "The Vilasrao Deshmukh government promoted the MNS to try and divide our party."

In Delhi, as the ruling Congress dithered, pressure from Bihar and eastern UP leaders, particularly railways minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and steel and mines minister Ram Vilas Paswan, finally forced the Centre to take action against the MNS. While Laloo described the MNS as a "terrorist organisation", Paswan suggested the use of Article 355 in Maharashtra, and asked the Mumbai police to file murder charges against Raj for the death of a young Bihari youth.

But other voices within the UPA struck an ambivalent note. Maharashtra’s revenue minister Narayan Rane, while saying that he disagreed with Raj Thackeray’s methods, endorsed his position on the recruitment issue. "We won’t let anyone fighting for the cause of Marathi people be isolated," he said. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said he saw no reason for central intervention in Maharashtra.

In the NDA, Purvanchal leaders ranging from those who belong to the BJP—which has cohabited with the Shiv Sena and subscribes to MNS-style politics—to the JD(U) have been anti-MNS. "What’s happened in Mumbai is indiscipline," said BJP chief Rajnath Singh, who is from UP. His party colleague Shahnawaz Hussain, an MP from Bihar’s Bhagalpur, demanded that Raj be booked for murder. "The treatment of north Indians in Maharashtra," he said, "is something not done even in Pakistan."

Outside the UPA and NDA, too, there has been disapproval. UP CM Mayawati demanded a ban on the MNS and warned Raj thus: "Thackeray needs to realise that Maharashtrians living in other states may have to pay for his misdeeds." Ominous words these.