This nephew is a rolling stone

Actually, Mumbai is quite familiar with his face as well as his pedigree. And yet the hoardings and their appeal to join Raj’s rally in the famous Shivaji Park maidan on March 19 had a stunning impact. That impact was seen on Sunday evening at the rally. Even journalists normally given to skepticism were surprised to see the huge crowds. Most of them were young, in the age group of 18 to 30. We learnt later that even Raj was flummoxed by the turnout.

Raj’s rally was not sponsored or supported by any renowned leader, organisation, NGO or any cooperative movement nor by any trade union organisation. And yet there was this mobilisation (anywhere between 1.75 to 2.5 lakh). Instant commentators first concluded that the people came out of “curiosity”, and to see how the “Next Gen” rebellion was shaping up. But the political reverberations are palpable not only in Mumbai, but all over Maharashtra.

One of the main reasons is that elections in a number of municipal corporations as well as for zilla parishads are scheduled in the next year or so. The results will raise the curtain for the final show in 2009. Raj has thrown a spanner in the political structure that has been by and large stable for the past eight years — in fact, which has been in place for nearly two decades.

The Congress, despite a split caused by Sharad Pawar’s rebellion in 1999, depended on its rural base with a vast network of sugar factories, educational institutions, cooperative banks and various organisations of farmers and traders. The Congress and the NCP shared that institutional base after the split.

The BJP had developed its network in the urban and rural middle class in the ‘’90s and, because of its OBC-friendly politics since then, it had spread its tentacles in the neo-well-off moffusil bourgeoisie. The Sena had attracted the vast lumpen base in cities as well as villages.

But in the last ten years (that is, during the two election terms), both the fronts, the Congress as well as the Sena-BJP had closed ranks. Doors were not open for newcomers. Their aspirations of becoming ZP representatives or corporators and their ambitions of becoming MLAs or MLCs and later ministers were repeatedly dashed. As a result there is a vast political class which is active, ambitious and with lot of energy and ideas. But there was no outlet to their frustration and anger.

Raj’s rebellion has taken lid off that frustration and opened up space for people who did not find entry elsewhere could get accommodated. But this is only one aspect. It would be unfair to describe the crowds at Shivaji Park as a merely politically ambitious lot. A very large number of them came to express their disgust with the ruling front, which has shown insensitivity towards the problems they have been facing and which have become very acute over the years.

The July floods in Mumbai and in many parts of Maharashtra showed how weak is the infrastructure and economy of the state. It also showed how indifferent the state government and municipal corporations were. Many corporations are controlled by the Sena-BJP alliance, including Mumbai. The state government is run by the Congress front. So all the prevailing parties were in power at different levels when the rains hit the cities and the state cruelly. Despite media criticism and public protests, neither the government nor the corporation administration moved.

The youth in the 18-30 age group, even from the Dalit and Muslim ranks, joined the Raj rally because they were not represented at all in their respective political parties or Muslim organisations. What they saw in New Raj Thackeray was cosmopolitanism, secularism of a different kind and an action-oriented approach. Raj announced in the rally that his party workers would not be pressured into sycophancy. Nobody would touch anyone’s feet. Nobody would invoked caste or religion. Nationalism is greater than Hinduism and linguistic chauvinism must not let the multi-cultural and multi-lingual character of Mumbai destroyed. Mumbai is great because of its diversity but it has been ruined by self-serving politicians of all parties, including the Shiv Sena.

Though he did not name his former party, his cousin Uddhav or Sena supremo Balasaheb, he made a radical departure from his past. It was a difficult feat, but he achieved it with great ease. He tried to project himself as the enemy of none and friend of all people and yet he announced the political party bosses and the bureaucratic elite as his real enemies. The people applauded him because they too feel today that all the parties in power or out of power and all the leaders are either cut off from the issues or are completely insensitive to the troubles of the common man.

It is not a question of whether Raj can translate the crowds into votes. It is also not a question of whether he has a well defined programme and a team. The only question that was redefined in the rally: Is Anybody Listening Out There?

That question will be answered in the elections, but it has already set in motion a new political process which will dramatically alter Maharashtra’s political geometry.