THE state government took the best way out of a bad situation last week by hurriedly ending a legislature session that provided a month of embarrassment. After all, it is not easy to defend the government's controlling family—the Thackerays—from charges of extortion and murder, day after day on the floor of the House. Not against incessant slogans from the Congress-led Opposition demanding a CBI investigation into the death of a tenant whose landlord is a friend of the Thackerays.
The Congress now seeks a return to power with the fresh lever hand-delivered to them by the Shiv Sena. The party is taking the agitation to the streets at two levels: to the people in banners, pamphlets, processions and speeches; and through the courts, trying to force a CBI inquiry into Ramesh Kini's death. Kini, who was found dead in a Pune theatre on July 23, left a trail leading back to his landlord Laxmichand Shah. Shah's son Suman is a friend of Raj Thackeray, Sena chief Bal Thackeray's nephew; and Maharashtra's powerful ruling family often featured in the Shahs' threats to their tenants.
In bustling Bombay, where anonymity is the rule, locals know a nondescript pink street-corner building in Matunga as the place where Ramesh Kini lived. They are eager to give directions, some even offer opinions, unsought. "They murdered this poor man for his flat. We may not learn anything from police investigations, but we know who these big people are. They will have to answer to God," says a taxi driver. Opinions have been formed, even though official verdicts haven't been passed, leaving the ruling combine worried.
"They (the Opposition) could not have done anything to us last April when we came to power—the people were with us. Today the situation is different, the people are not with us. Two or three more cases like this and we may have to go," says a worried BJP leader, who cites recent bus and auto fare hikes as other moves that have made the government rather unpopular. For those who know that Kini was a Sena supporter, who voted, and for a while even put a party sticker on his door, the Sena has slipped from its place as a champion of Maharashtrian—or anyone's—rights.
In a deteriorating situation, can a disenchanted electorate which last year gave them the poorest mandate in the state's electoral history—80 seats—return to the Congress? That is what the party is now checking out. At a meeting last week at the MPCC headquarters Tilak Bhavan, moving the court was considered the best option. Finding a suitable lawyer—many top notch ones have pleaded busy fearing the Sena, say party sources—and filing a writ, and/or backing Sheila, Kini's widow, who is also planning to move court to force the government to hand the ongoing CID investigation to the CBI.
Some of the haste to seek a different course to justice comes after Chief Minister Manohar Joshi gave a clean chit to Raj Thackeray. On the floor of the House and in a four-page statement, he said preliminary investigations showed that Raj Thackeray had "no connection whatsoever with the case". However, he did not say the same for Ashutosh Rane, Bhartiya Vidyarthi Sena leader and long time associate of Raj. "There is circumstantial evidence to prove the association of Rane in the case," said Joshi. Dismissing the cloud of doubts that he is functioning under tremendous pressure from Bal Thackeray, Joshi stated his willingness to "investigate whosoever is inv-olved...I did not say I would not investigate the case. ..I need not be under pressure because I am acting as the government." His words at the end of the session, came days after Bal Thackeray heaped his fury on the government for treating Rane like a 'common criminal'—taking him to court with his face covered, and remanding him to custody while the main accused, the Shahs, were granted bail. Four Sena MLAs who offered to resign in protest subjected the government to further pressure, widely seen in moves like the replacement of special public prosecutor P.R. Vakil and a 'whitewashed' preliminary inquiry.
A minister has expressed a feeling gaining ground that the CBI, if it takes over, may actually arrest a Thackeray, setting off conflagration. Leaders from both the Congress and the Sena are watching a drama unfold at many levels: tension between Thackeray and Joshi; between Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde and Thackeray; and within the Thackeray clan itself. Sources say strain in the ruling family—the birth of another Thackeray baby has not eased the situation—is occupying the Sena chief, who has told his kin to keep a lower profile.
Much of the Sena anger is directed at Chhagan Bhujbal, Opposition leader in the legislative council. A former Sena leader, he is seen as the man who raked up the Kini business and pitched it in the face of the Thackerays. Says Bhujbal: "The court, lawyers, investigation—at every stage it has been managed by them. They were afraid I would expose them, I have. Now they are trying to dig up something against me, even get me arrested, so that my attention is diverted. I want to warn them that this will boomerang...." Building a case for the CBI to take it over, Bhujbal has listed a number of holes in the story:
The Kini mystery is going to keep the Congress and Bhujbal in business for a while. When it fades out there is a whole bag of tricks to follow—seven instances of extortions involving the Thackeray scions, that have been reported—which wait to fuel the Congress brand of publicity.
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