The Gawali phenomenon

However, that an acknowledged don like Arun Gawali could collect such a big crowd, sent shudders down their backs. The event also gave rise to a great deal of speculation. It was felt that it was impossible for Gawali to have mustered such a crowd on his own strength without the tacit support of some strongman from an opposition party. Gawali seems to have taken a vow to defeat the alliance government, and has openly come out against the Shiv Sena in general and its supremo Bal Thackeray in particular.

Where does Gawali get his political strength from? Is there a master-mind behind him advising him on his political moves? What went wrong between him and Sena leader Bal Thackeray? After all, the same Thackeray had once stated in public that “if they (Sharad Pawar and the Congress) have Dawood (with them), we have Gawali (with us)”. Is the Gawali factor in Maharashtra politics today so important that the State’s police will seize any excuse to put him behind bars? If not, why did the State government have made the faux pas, not once but twice within a short period, of arresting him on comparatively flimsy grounds, like inspiring an attack on a journalist?

Does the hasty action by the rulers show that they are uneasy about his moves and, therefore, in panic arrested him despite knowing that the charge could not be sustained? Is it not true that the government is making a hero out of a don, by paying undue attention to his activities? These are some important questions that have surfaced recently.

Arun Gawali has declared that he intends to lead a reformed life and that his past should be forgotten. He has appealed to the government to leave him alone. Anna Hazare, the social activist who has tremendous credibility in Maharashtra, demonstrated his political naivete by sending his blessings to Gawali through the latter’s wife when she met him at Ralegaon Siddi.Nobody can deny Gawali his right to be reformed, nor can he be deprived of his right to be a political leader by starting his own party Akhil Bharatiya Sena. However, as long as he continues to have faith in terrorist methods, he can never hope to convince others of his honest intentions. His frequent utterances to wipe out Dawood Ibrahim at the earliest opportunity and his appeals to all daughters-in-law to “inform him on postcards” about instances of ill-treatment in their marital homes, show that even today he is not averse to resorting to strong-arm tactics. But there is no place for such methods in democratic politics.

At the same time it is important to know why Gawali’s followers are growing in number. This phenomenon can only be explained in terms of the Robin Hood syndrome, or robbing (rich) Peter, to pay (poor) Paul. For one, Gawali is exerting an increasing influence on frustrated youth, who are in turn seeking a quick and summary redressal of alleged injustices which, they believe, is denied to them by the status quo. Their hopes were raised when the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance came to power two and a half years ago, but only to be belied. The ruling alliance’s promises have remained only platitudes. This section cannot, obviously, turn to any other political party. The Congress Party, that fared miserably in the previous elections, is shattered beyond repair. The BJP cannot grow in an atmosphere where they are forced to play the role of a second fiddle. Socialist parties of all hues have lost their charm long ago. Political parties in Maharashtra have shown themselves to be intellectually bankrupt. Bal Thackeray, time and again, proudly announces that he has energized an entire generation. But it is obvious that he has no clear strategy that can hold and bind this section together.Nearly one lakh mill-workers lost their means of livelihood during the prolonged strike led by Datta Samant in the early l980s. Many of the children of these workers who lost their jobs, found their childhood blighted and their future dark, without a ray of hope.

Added to this failure of political parties, is the failure of the political system which offers them no opportunities of employment. A stage comes when any person, whatever his background, who promises them better prospects, can easily win their loyalty, at least for a brief period. Today, it is Arun Gawali’s turn to play such a role. In fact, he is attempting to repeat history by resorting to the methods that the Shiv Sena had once employed in order to come to power: donate ambulances, disburse money among the needy and the poor, distribute notebooks to poor schoolchildren, erect newspapar stands at every possible nook and corner and try and impart quick justice by using strong-arm tactics.

This is the fool-proof recipe of gaining the support of the young and frustrated. “Injustice” is a word that Gawali is frequently heard uttering. He has also shown that he is not averse to using violence should the occasion arise. But can he and should he take law into his hands and set out to run a parallel administration? His followers anxious to get quick results are ready to give him all the power to fight for their cause. When hopes are belied, any remedy, even a desperate one, seems good.The rise in the number of those ready to dispense social justice by using muscle power is an obvious sign of the failure of the political system. But when politics continues to be a major instrument for gaining social acceptability, mobility and respectability, when power to hold society at ransom gets legitimised, when in a mass democracy the criminal element provides both muscle power and money power, when competitive populism of politicians and criminals alike holds sway over society, when the political class looks to politics merely as a game of exercising power, the distinction between the politician and the bandit is blurred.