Attack of the Clone

WAY back in the 1980s, when Raj Thackeray began perfecting his uncle8217;s walk and talk, the first to appreciate the flattery was Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray himself. It was widely felt that the aging patriarch, resigned to his own son Uddhav8217;s lack of interest in politics, was seeing in his nephew the future of the Sena.

Not even Thackeray Sr, it seems, realised that the youth was so casting himself in his uncle8217;s mould8212;blunt, aggressive, defiant and ambitious8212;that he would, one day, rise in rebellion against his own.

That day was nowhere on the horizon in 1989 when Thackeray Sr designated Raj the chief of the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, the students8217; wing of the party. Other leaders had been with the party since its inception in 1966 and needed fresh blood to fight the street battles. The party had captured the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation in 1985 and was looking to spread its wings; leaders like Chhagan Bhujbal and Narayan Rane were being deputed to spread the 8216;S8217; word in rural Maharashtra.

Raj and his team were happy to supply muscle power wherever required. And he also took it upon himself to tap emotive 8216;8216;youth8217;8217; issues, like unemployment and parochialism. Besides floating the Shiv Udyog Sena, an employment exchange, Raj developed a penchant for hitting the streets in protest against 8216;8216;outsiders8217;8217;8212;migrants from other states8212;who were allegedly pocketing all the jobs.

Change of Pitch
ALL that changed in 1995, when the party captured the legislative assembly with BJP support. The aggressive rabble-rousers, who had steered the party so far, suddenly found themselves eclipsed by leaders focusing on economic well-being as more and more of them floated businesses, especially as contractors and real estate developers.

The turning point came in 2001, when Uddhav8212;a soft-spoken wildlife photographer8212;began showing an interest in politics. Thackeray Sr responded by crowning him executive president of the party, even though Raj8212;eight years younger than his cousin8212;was a decade older in politics.

It wasn8217;t long before the fundamental differences between the cousins began to manifest themselves. Uddhav8217;s 8216;soft8217; approach began annoying the cadres who had developed a taste for strong-arm tactics and the Marathi manoos card. His 8216;Mee Mumbaikar8217; I Mumbaiite campaign, launched in 2003 to free the party of the shackles of the Marathi Manoos as also Hindutva8212;picked up when the party tied up with the BJP in 19898212;only accentuated the distance.

Contrast this with Raj and his supporters who, in 1991, dug up the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai to prevent a cricket match between India and Pakistan in protest against terrorism in Kashmir, and began inflaming passions among local youth on the employment issue. Shiv Sainiks went on the rampage, beating up migrant job-seekers. Sainiks elsewhere in the state took the cue, creating law and order problems in cities like Nashik.

Decisive Moment
THE move was at odds with the national profile the Sena was simultaneously seeking for itself. In states like Uttar Pradesh8212;home to the Mumbai migrants Raj and his men were targeting8212;local Shiv Sainiks cried foul and, finally, it was at Thackeray8217;s intervention that the party abandoned its aggressive stance against 8216;migrants8217;.

In the process, however, Raj felt sidelined. The cold war between the cousins intensified further on the eve of the assembly polls in 2004, when Raj8217;s nominees were rejected by Uddhav.

Even as Raj found an ally in Rane, the bond with his uncle continued to be strong. Raj, a cartoonist like his uncle, paid the latter an unusual tribute by bringing out a photo-hagiography six months ago at a grand function at the Gateway of India.

That the warmth was8212;is?8212;reciprocated was evident during the July deluge. When the flood waters entered Matoshri, the home shared by Thackeray Sr and Uddhav, it was to Raj8217;s house that the Sena supremo was evacuated in a dinghy. The three Thackerays shared a roof for a whole week until things returned to normal.

Crossing the Line
FOR Thackeray Sr, it seemed, Raj was always an over-enthusiastic kid, who, at times, went out of control and had to be consoled and even warned.

The last occasion when Thackeray Sr publicly scolded Raj was on the eve of the Malvan assembly by-election on November 19. The election itself had been necessitated by Rane8217;s recent resignation 8212; he quit the Sena in July this year accusing Uddhav and his coterie of ruining the party.

Raj had been sulking after having to cut short his Konkan visit following tension in the area and, on his return to Mumbai, had accused Uddhav of sending Sainiks from Mumbai deliberately, despite his clear instructions to the contrary.

Tempers ran high when Sanjay Raut, the executive editor of Sena8217;s mouthpiece Saamna and a staunch Uddhav supporter, accused Raj of being a coward and not fighting it out in Konkan and risking arrest like a 8216;8216;real8217;8217; Sena leader.

The election rally at Malvan on November 17 was crucial. Bal Thackeray, age 79, announced he was retiring from active politics and would function only as an advisor, with Uddhav at the helm of the Sena. The announcement also sealed Raj8217;s fate, but Thackeray Sr, used to having his directives obeyed unquestioningly, could not have predicted the outcome.

On November 25, Raj dashed off a stinker to his uncle, blaming Uddhav and his coterie for running the party like petty clerks and sidelining him and his supporters. Thackeray Sr responded by summoning him, assuming his nephew was in another one of his periodic sulks. But Raj, it seemed, had made up his mind.

On his return from Nashik, for which he had left soon after despatching the letter, Raj did not visit his uncle, but announced that he was quitting party posts as Sena leader and as chief of the BVS. Subsequent peace offerings by Thackeray Sr emissaries proved futile.

Blood Bonds
DESPITE the rift, the emotional bonds between uncle and nephew probably persist. 8216;8216;The main reason Raj has left Mumbai for Pune is because he can8217;t face his uncle,8217;8217; says a Raj supporter. 8216;8216;He knew that if he had had to have met his uncle before quitting the party posts, he would not have been able to carry out his resolution. He worships his uncle.8217;8217;

Even in his resignation announcement, Raj compared his uncle to Vaishnavite deity Vithal, saying that he had no differences with his Vithal, but with the badavas priests at the Vithal shrine in Pandharpur, southern Maharashtra around him.

Thackeray Sr8217;s only reponse to Raj8217;s rebellion came in an emotional editorial in Saamna, in which he said, 8216;8216;The tears of a fish are not visible in water8212;nobody cares.8217;8217;

He also made it clear that the Sena was not the private property of the Thackeray family in which Raj was attempting to claim his share.

For Thackeray Sr, who once only had to lift a finger to bring Mumbai8212;and at times Maharashtra8212;to a standstill, Raj8217;s revolt has come as an apocalypse: The defiant nephew, who modelled himself on his uncle and subsumed the basics of the party, has refused to obey him. Caught in a time warp, the nephew has only manifested the qualities and philosophies of his uncle.

Thackeray Sr may not agree, but he cannot but understand.