Bravo Sachin!

The Marathi manoos of the Shiv Sena’s conception, and those of its derivatives, took a hard knock when the octogenarian Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray seriously miscalculated and messed with Indian superstar Sachin Tendulkar, who happens to take great pride in his Maharashtrian roots. Violating the canon of the Maharashtrian-chauvinist party, the cricketing hero declared without hesitation in reply to a reporter’s question that he was an Indian first, and that all Indians had an equal right to Mumbai. This has made the Sena chief see red because the view challenges the first principle on which his outfit has been built over the years. To allow Mr Tendulkar’s assertion to go uncontested may have appeared to Mr Thackeray to participate in the crime of his own denigration. After all, the Marathi-Mumbai sutra is a bread and butter matter for Mr Thackeray, whose storm-troopers — and those of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena — have intimidated non-Maharashtrians in Mumbai, including the likes of superstar Amitabh Bachchan, with no one daring to offer resistance. Now that a Marathi manoos, who sees himself first as an India manoos, has challenged the bully squad, the cookie has crumbled. It is indeed a pity that no Maharashtrian of stature had spoken up earlier in the forthright terms that Mr Tendulkar has employed. This imparts the famous cricketer’s contribution immeasurable value. His words will impact not just all of India but all of Maharashtra, and that is what counts in building the edifice of a multi-ethnic, multilingual society and state. Indeed, most Maharashtrians are likely to be relieved that a much-loved and admired son of the soil has stepped forward to fill the breach.
Where they were silent before, senior politicians of every description are coming out to praise Mr Tendulkar’s no-nonsense India-first stand. The Shiv Sena’s alliance partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has also announced that the batting genius is spot on. Mumbai kowtowed to Mr Thackeray because it feared him. Anxiety about Sena reprisals is likely to be less pervasive now, and this may be expected to corrode the politics and mobilisation strategy of the Sena and others of its ilk. The Shiv Sena was licked in the recent state elections. The Marathi petty bourgeois constituency, including its backward caste segment, appears to be shrinking even if the MNS votes and seats are brought into the equation. Perhaps its core will never go away, and a moth-eaten Sena will remain a part of Mumbai’s political landscape. But, in time, that can only resemble a political mafia. Goaded by the Congress with a view to curbing communist influence, the Shiv Sena had come into existence in a shortage economy and just in time to fill the gap being left on account of the decline of Communist influence in the trade unions of Mumbai. The circumstances have undergone a sea change since then. Narrow chauvinism will not deliver the political goods effectively when the economic system is in an expansion phase. Policies aimed at raising employment opportunities is apt to further whittle the politics of navel-gazing.