The War Within

"Balasaheb was, is and will remain my God but I have nothing to do with thepimps around him," thundered Raj to thousands of supporters outside hisShivaji Park house on Sunday. "The Shiv Sena is run by a four-six clerks…theyhave taken a ‘supari’ to finish it off and I cannot be party to such a sin.My people have been systematically sidelined, I have been kept out ofeverything. I don’t want the top job but I cannot tolerate this any longer. Iresign from all posts in the Sena."

It was a masterstroke in the sense that he had challenged - and openly so -Uddhav and his coterie while revering Thackeray as his deity. Ironically, it wasRaj who had proposed Uddhav’s name as working president at the Mahabaleshwarconclave in 2001. Steadily since then, Uddhav’s influence and control over theparty has grown, and Raj has been ignored. "It seems I had shot myself in thefoot that day," rued Raj.

Minutes later, as impassioned supporters unleashed Sena-style violence oncars, bikes and people belonging to the Uddhav camp, it became clear that thisis, indeed, the war within. The Sena’s culture of violence had come home, itslanguage of hate had been directed towards one of its own. Raj and Uddhav willhenceforth be two parts of a family, two different faces of the Sena, twopolarized options for lakhs of Sainiks. The political lesson - that when thefamily is the party, expect an acrimonious outcome - is not too different from a‘brotherly’ spat over the country’s largest corporate empire earlier thisyear

Raj and Uddhav present a study in contrasts. They have individualcharacteristics that complement each other, ironically the combination is whatthe party badly needs at this juncture if it must keep its political identityand future intact. Raj is the natural leader of people, militant and flamboyant,given to grandstanding and extreme options. Uddhav is the sober andsophisticated strategist, the archetypal backroom guy given to quiet networkingand a modern approach. Uddhav wants the Sena to get out of its thuggishhangover, Raj wants to go back to the streetfights. Their visions for the party- and for themselves - are as different, even contradictory. There’s space forone of them, not both. It’s a fierce and bitter power struggle. The split wasto happen, and the question was when would Raj reach breaking point.

But it wasn’t always like this. Raj, the only son of Thackeray’s brotherShrikant, spent more time with his uncle learning to cartoon and paint, growingup with cousin Uddhav and his brothers, often calling late Meenatai Ma. Meenatai,Thackeray’s wife, was also Raj’s maternal aunt. As it turned out, Rajresembled his uncle, adopted his mannerisms, learned the nuances of his style,replicated his oratory and thought in personal life as well as on stage. By thelate 80s, Raj was given the job of traveling across Maharashtra to build theBharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, and he styled it as mini-Sena with the same aggressiveideology and violent methods. Raj sat in on the political meetings at Thackeray’sbungalow ‘Matoshri’ while Uddhav indulged in his twin passions of wildlifeand photography.

In mid-90s, Raj was heading for the top job. When it came to the crunch in2001, Thackeray chose Uddhav, finally anointing him working president. Raj,caught on the back foot then in a murder case, couldn’t really complain.Uddhav had the throne but the real power behind the throne would always be withhim, or so he would have thought, because Uddhav was such a novice, not a true"Shiv Sainik". That may have been the script but the reality turnedout different. Uddhav asserted his own style and agenda which was unlike that ofthe old Sena: He aspired to make the party more acceptable, he wanted debates ondevelopments and issues, he called for inclusiveness (Mumbaikar, not Marathimanus) that Sainiks had never heard of before. Raj’s politics, agenda andmethods did not fit in anywhere. Eventually, Raj himself did not. Also, Uddhavrealized that he could not be secure as long as he depended on Raj for hispolitics. The battle for supremacy finally drove a wedge between the two.Whenever Raj sulked - at least thrice earlier - Thackeray would broker a trucebut essentially for public consumption. For his own political future, Raj hasexercised his last option - war on Uddhav.

Narayan Rane’s revolt in July this year opened the doors for Raj, albeit ina roundabout way. The issues they have raised about the party’s future, aboutUddhav’s style of functioning, about a self-serving coterie are the same butRaj cannot take the Rane route to the Congress. Being a Thackeray is analbatross round his neck. His future, he believes, lies in creating his ownorganization on the lines of the Shiv Sena, as it originally was, even if it iswith the backing of Sharad Pawar. Easier said than done, even if a handful ofMLAs, few MPs and one-fourth of the 103 Sena councilors in the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation - all disgruntled with Uddhav - pledge support. He cannotpromise them anything now unlike Rane or even Uddhav. In an age of remixes andre-makes, Raj plans to re-make what his uncle and 17 others did in 1966.Re-makes have their limitations, serious limitations.

Having become wiser after the Rane episode, when they played into his hands,Thackeray and Uddhav have chosen a different strategy to counter Raj. Raj wouldlike Uddhav to expel him from the party - an unthinkable for a Thackeray - so hebecomes the legitimate victim. Uddhav wants to ‘expose’ Raj, wear him down,call his bluff. The nitty-gritty of gathering support from amongst the Saniksitself will open Raj’s eyes to reality, believes Uddhav. The mediation effortsare on but if push comes to shove, he will take the extreme and ultimate stepbut only after neutralizing Raj’s support base to a minimum. For now, Uddhavis content to play the emotional card: "Raj is my younger brother…he hasresigned from party posts, how can he resign from the relationship?"

In this battle between brothers, Thackeray thundered in the party newspaper Saamna:"the Sena isn’t anybody’s private property…those who have grown up inthe shadow of the Himalayas should not believe themselves to be bigger than theHimalayas". He is the court of last appeal, he is the only one who still hasthe power to persuade Raj to return to the fold - the family and the party. Butfor all purposes, the father has backed his son and the nephew must make hispeace. Raj is beyond emotional appeal. It’s too late for him to turn back,even if he so wishes, but not easy to totally cut himself off. A Thackeray who’snot a Shiv Sainik? It’s certainly not a happy present for his uncle’slandmark birthday.