It146;s the Constitution

That L.K. Advani has chosen to speak out against the hate campaign unleashed by the Shiv Sena and Maharastra Navnirman Sena in Mumbai is significant. It comes at a moment when it was beginning to appear that the competitive parochialism of the cousins Thackeray was not being met by any consequential political resistance. Advani8217;s intervention is remarkable not just because of his stature as the BJP8217;s prime ministerial candidate. The Shiv Sena and the BJP have been locked in an alliance of mutual need ever since they first came together in the late 8217;80s; the Sena is the BJP8217;s oldest ally. But Advani8217;s criticism of the Sena8217;s anti-Outsider tirade is valuable, most of all, for the expansive terms in which he locates it. The Sena8217;s campaign is against the 8220;Constitution8221; and 8220;the concept of national unity8221;, he says, and every Indian has the right to live, work and travel to any place in the country, irrespective of his place of birth. The reiteration of the Constitution8217;s letter and spirit as the central legitimising force of any political strategy, is welcome, and in the context of the small-mindedness recently on display in Mumbai, long overdue.

This was also a moment when BJP-Sena ties were again showing signs of strain. Bal Thackeray chose the annual ritual of the Saamna interview on his birthday last month to send out a warning to ally BJP. The 8216;Modi model8217; won8217;t work in Maharashtra, he said, and reiterated Sena support to Sharad Pawar as prime minister. There have been signs that the Sena is discomfited by the BJP8217;s renewed confidence after the big victory in Gujarat. In a sense, it resurrects an older tension that has always chased the BJP and the Sena. It comes into play whenever the Sena perceives that Hindutva, the plank it shares with the BJP, is coming into conflict with its patented slogan of 8216;Marathi pride8217;, or even on Hindutva, that it is being outflanked by the BJP. It is perhaps this insecurity, among other calculations, that has led the Shiv Sena to plunge headlong into its current bout of one-upmanship with the MNS.

Advani8217;s cautionary note to the Sena on its campaign against the 8216;Outsider8217; can potentially be a reality check for the Sena8217;s politics of regional chauvinism taken too far 8212; and also for those within his own party who would want to cast Hindutva in more and more exclusivist ways. It sends out messages for both the BJP and Sena 8212; a national party must necessarily have an encompassing vision. And two, the regional party cannot afford to lose sight of the fact that it is a constitutive part of the whole.