Thackeray's G-Strings

BAL Thackeray's new war cry has everyone squirming: aabhimanaane saangaa ki amhi g*****nchi avlaad aahot (literally, Garv se kaho ki hum g****u ki aulad hain). This is no barb against the Muslims or other ethnic/regional minorities on the Sena chief's hitlist. It's a call to the BJP, the allies Thackeray is no longer friends with. "We do not hold saffron flags blotted with green in our hands. Those who do are not the aulaad of the Marathas." The obvious reference being to the BJP flag which is half green.

Thackeray's diatribe against the BJP came at public meetings last fortnight while he was campaigning for corporation elections in Kalyan-Dombivili. The Garv se kaho hum... quote with the 'g' word was splashed as banner headline in the September 22 edition of Saamna, the party mouthpiece.

This wasn't the only objectionable statement to come from Thackeray; he made several other vituperative remarks laced with sexual innuendo. They have left everyone, including the state unit of the BJP, stunned and embarrassed, even though the BJP should have expected this. For more than a year now, it has been trying to consume - or at least subsume - the Sena in Maharashtra. The most apparent manifestation of this was in former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde's refusal to play ball at the formation of the state government a year ago.

A year later there's been more of the same: the BJP decided quite deliberately to do without the Sena in the Nagpur and Aurangabad municipal elections last year. They might not have swept or won the polls but they did damage the Sena. It's an experiment the BJP's undertaken at the grassroots to improve its strength in the Lok Sabha. The Sena, according to BJP calculations, is easy meat as they basically share the same voter base.

So when Munde spoke of a hat-trick in the Kalyan-Dombivili elections, an enraged Thackeray shot back, "Hat? Hat-trick? How could he pull that off when he has no head? For a hat you need a head!" Thackeray has also described Munde as Kaikeyi - King Dashrath's third wife whose son had no legitimate claim to the throne but who cussedly defied the king. That is among the kindest things he has to say about Munde.

Besides, Thackeray's also caught on to the BJP's gameplan. "At first, I thought it was only Munde's ambition getting in the way of our unity. But now I am convinced that Munde is indeed acting at the behest of senior leaders of the BJP and there is a conspiracy against the Sena." The obvious reference was to L.K. Advani, A.B. Vajpayee and perhaps even Pramod Mahajan.

For Mahajan had been rather uncomplimentary in comparing the Sena chief, in his ambition to head the Maharashtra government, to a bull locked in a shed who sits with his eyes glued to the door so that he can make a run for it the moment it's let loose. Thackeray had retorted: "I do not care for those who indulge in natakbaji and dhongipana (playacting and sham)."

Thackeray's also been swift in his attack on Bangaru Laxman and the BJP's new-found love for the Muslims, even if he'd wooed the community in the last elections. This time round, Thackeray's unequivocally condemned the BJP's Nagpur agenda and sworn to wipe the green blots off the saffron standard. "Be warned," Thackeray roared at his public meeting, "the Muslims won't suck up to Laxman, the Hindus will fall off in droves and in the end he'll only be left holding the rod in his hand."

The killing of Hindu pilgrims in Amarnath had also become a source of acrimony between the two parties. When Munde invited the Sena to participate in the vhp bandh after the killings, Thackeray refused, citing the Kerala high court ruling against bandhs by parties. "Very smart," said Thackeray. "The BJP stays home. The Sena risks derecognition. We're not fools."

At the same time, he was vocal about the failure of the Vajpayee-led government to prevent those killings and their willingness to talk with the Hizbul Mujahideen. Without taking Advani or Vajpayee's name, Thackeray condemned their interaction with the militants, saying: "Delhi has slipped out of their hands. We should feel proud this country is being ruled by g****us." (This too was published in bold in Saamna.)

Thackeray's has been a well-timed revenge. For one, he startled and upset the BJP leadership by dispatching Union ministers Manohar Joshi and Suresh Prabhu following complaints about the Gujarat government being unfair to Hindus. Now he plans, for the first time ever, to leave home base in Maharashtra and venture out to Sabarmati to campaign there, taking advantage of the internecine war within the Gujarat BJP.

The barbs have hit home. Mahajan's making conciliatory noises after the hung verdict the Kalyan-Dombivili elections threw up. Swallowing the insults, direct and oblique, Thackeray's heaped upon him, brother-in-law Munde, and other party leaders, Mahajan seems to think the alliance is still not over and the two parties might yet come together to muster a majority in the Kalyan-Dombivili corporation.

But that'll be only on Thackeray's terms. For he's made it clear to the BJP that it dare not test the Sena's strength at the grassroots. "You will not be able to stand up to us." Labelling the BJP as "infiltrators", he has described them as "Hizbul Mujahideen ke baap". Why? Because they infiltrate every state that belongs to someone else. Elucidating in a public meeting, Thackeray said: "If in Maharashtra, they wish to take over the Sena; in Bengal, they're hatching a conspiracy against Mamata Banerjee. But they cannot even keep what is theirs. First let them hold fast to Uttar Pradesh and then we will see how much of our state they can grab."

Clearly not very much, if Mahajan and his partymen have to eat crow and go back to Thackeray, hat in hand, each time they fail to muster enough seats. No wonder Thackeray says, "We've been their stepping stone (to success). We can pull the rug from under their feet any time." The BJP, then, is discovering that while Thackeray's party might be the easiest to consume, he is not the easiest ally to fool, at least not forever.