Raj Thackeray’s Gudi Padwa Speech and What Are Its Implications for Maharashtra

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray declared in his Gudi Padwa Rally that his party had decided to offer unconditional support to Narendra Modi and only Narendra Modi and accordingly the grand alliance of Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena (led by Eknath Shinde) and Nationalist Congress Party (led by Ajit Pawar). What this has done is effectively shut out the space that a Marathi voter was looking for in the Maharashtra politics.

A number of people mistake this space as people insisting on and forcing the use of Marathi language or opposing the influx of so-called outsiders in cities like Mumbai and Pune. Almost none of them remember the glorious history of struggle for a separate Maharastra comprising Mumbai (then Bombay) which was the capital of a large province that included the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The people who fought this battle were mostly left-leaning leaders and the battle was against Congress, ruling in both Bombay Province and the Center. Bal Thackeray’s Shiv Sena that espoused the cause of Marathi Maanus later, was not even born then. And even after its birth, the Thackeray-led party really picked up the cause and issues of the middle class Maharashtrians in Mumbai and Thane for a long period. The party expanded only after it picked up the cause of Hindutva in the late 80s. It occupied the challenger space mainly in the regions of Konkan (a lot of Konkanis have settled in Mumbai, and therefore carried the political influence back home) and Marathwada (where a large section of Maratha community was upset following the then Chief Minister Sharad Pawar’s move to rename Marathwada University after Bharatratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar). It spoke of Marathi asmita (pride), but never really defined it or took it to the rest of the state.

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This is in stark contrast with the states like West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh or Tamilnadu. The regional parties created their space in these states to the extent that they nearly marginalised national parties such as the Congress or Bharatiya Janata Party. In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress made Bengal pride as its main plank and its Maa, Maati, Maanush slogan really caught up. It first neutralised the very dominant left politics in Bengal and then stood strong against the politics of BJP which keeps getting better number of seats and vote share in Loksabha elections than in the assembly. Congress is a distant third in the state where it was fighting with the Left for power for decades.

In Andhra Pradesh, late N T Ramarao changed the game as he made Telugu pride as the election issue citing frequent change of chief ministers (five in five years). An actor by profession, NTR really galvanised the way elections were fought till then, introducing rath yatras for the first time in India (a concept later copied by the BJP). His election slogan was Telugu Vari Atma Gauravam (Telugu people’s self respect) and he won 202 out of 294 seats in Andhra Pradesh assembly. Even in the aftermath of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination, his party Telugu Desam Party emerged as the winner of most seats in Andhra Pradesh and was the Main Opposition Party in 1984. The spirit of Telugu pride is still strong in the now bifurcated states and even though Congress emerged victorious in recently held assembly elections, it was mainly the charisma of Revanth Reddy who is now the CM there. The politics in these states is incomplete without invoking local pride.

Tamil Nadu politics has really been the epitome of regional pride. Right from forcing the mighty center to bow to its demand of formation of states based on the formula of languages to dominating the politics with its ideology and thoughts of the likes of Periyar, Tamil Nadu has been in a different league altogether. Even after the split in the torch bearing party of Tamil cause, the Dravid Munnetra Kazhagham, the spirit of Tamil pride was never split. Both factions still carry the baton taking turns to the throne and both Congress and BJP have, so far, not been able to penetrate the state.

Now contrast this to Maharashtra. Despite being one of the most talked about national leaders late Bal Thackeray’s party could enjoy a brief run of just four and a half years at the top, that too, in partnership with the BJP. By the time party came to power, its main plank had become Hindutva and not Marathi pride. The second time the party enjoyed the fruits of power, it was a junior partner of the BJP and its leaders felt humiliated at the hands of their earlier junior partner. Eventually Shiv Sena, under Uddhav Thackeray, joined hands with the Congress and the NCP and ruled for two and half years before the revolt that entirely took away the party from him. The party is now handed to Eknath Shinde who rarely speaks of Marathi maanus and has completely aligned himself with BJP’s Hindutva. Not that Uddhav has stuck to the Marathi guns either.

After he split from his uncle’s party, it was expected that Raj Thackeray will pick up the Marathi cause more fiercely. And he did, for a while. But again, he remained focused on Mumbai and adjoining areas. For some period, it seemed like he had started eating into the Sena space as he damaged Shiv Sena significantly both in Loksabha and assembly elections. But he could not sustain the tempo, and kept changing his stance almost every elections. It now appears that his political stance is determined by where his cousin Uddhav stands. When Uddhav was with the BJP, Raj went hammer and tongs against Modi. Now that Uddhav is with Congress, Raj has offered support to the BJP.

What this has done to the people of the state is that there is really no one to fight for Marathi pride or the interests of Marathi people. The Maratha reservation agitation is an indicator of how deep the issue of unemployment is. But no party has launched a fierce struggle even as industries after industries are going to neighbouring state. When the center tried to take Karnataka’s native milk brand Nandini under the fold of Gujarat-based Amul, there were strong protests and it even became an election issue. But when Mahanand, Maharashtra’s own milk brand was handed over on a platter to Amul, there was not even a murmur. There are just several such examples, the chief being poor allocation of funds from the center. But this doesn’t become an election issue. The state politicians, instead, are talking about personal betrayals, family disputes and who ‘owns’ which constituency. Maharashtra is not the Maha Rashtra, the big state, any more. It is now just a state that sends 48 MPs who represent their parties and toe their party lines without asking a single question.