From pro-Marathi stance to Hindutva: Raj Thackeray comes a full circle

From campaigning on the plank of development to taking up a strident anti-north Indian migrant stance, then supporting Narendra Modi’s prime ministerial candidature, yet fielding candidates against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition in 2014; again, from campaigning for Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2019 to parroting a pro-Hindutva line that complements BJP

From campaigning on the plank of development to taking up a strident anti-north Indian migrant stance, then supporting Narendra Modi’s prime ministerial candidature, yet fielding candidates against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition in 2014; again, from campaigning for Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2019 to parroting a pro-Hindutva line that complements BJP. The politics of Raj Thackeray and his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is categorised by a dramatic 180-degree turn in political positions, which are often inconsistent with each other.

Raj Thackeray addresses a gathering at Shivaji Park on Gudhi Padwa. HT File Photo

Union minister and senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari met Raj at his residence in Shivaji Park late on Sunday, intensifying the buzz of a likely alliance between the MNS and BJP for the forthcoming civic polls in the state.

Now, with his party at a nadir after a series of electoral debacles and massive desertions from the ranks, Thackeray is trying to steer the MNS towards a pro-Hindutva agenda from the previous pro-Marathi nativist approach. This will help the MNS build bridges with BJP and corner its rival Shiv Sena, which has been compelled to temper its right-wing instincts after allying with the “secular” Congress and the NCP, despite the obvious contradictions in the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi.

However, this turn to Hindutva may come at a price. The socio-political polarisation in Mumbai has Marathi-versus-non-Marathi hues and the MNS could secure a political opening in 2009 due to its stance against north Indian migrants, who compete with local Maharashtrians in the burgeoning informal sector. Embracing Hindutva will mean that the MNS will have to turn a blind eye to any socio-cultural and political assertion by non-Marathi, yet Hindu linguistic groups, including the migrants from Hindi-speaking states and the mercantile communities. Any right-wing assertion may also repel sections like Marathi Muslims and Buddhist Dalits who are inimical to Hindutva and affect any plan to emerge as a pan-Maharashtra regional force.

On Saturday, at his party’s Gudhi Padwa rally, Raj lashed out at his estranged cousin and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, and ticked the right boxes on issues close to the heart of BJP. He asked the state government to remove loudspeakers on mosques and said if this was not done, his cadre would play Hanuman Chalisa on loudspeakers in front of them.

This led to a pushback from the NCP and Sena. “His speciality is, he is underground for two to four months, then delivers a lecture, and then again heads underground for three to four months,” said NCP president Sharad Pawar, while pointing to the touch-and-go brand of politics practised by the MNS.

Pawar’s daughter and Baramati MP Supriya Sule hinted that the Enforcement Directorate’s notice to Raj in 2019 may have led to this change of mind.

Sena legislator and spokesperson Manisha Kayande derided Raj as a “BJP spokesperson” and charged that while the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen was BJP’s “B-team,” the MNS was its “C-team”.

Yuva Sena president and environment minister Aaditya Thackeray too dismissed the MNS as the “C-team” of BJP.

MNS leaders said Raj’s political U-turn was almost like a last-ditch attempt to revive the flagging fortunes of his party. “The speech has laid the groundwork for an eventual political handshake with BJP. This may be either an alliance or an informal electoral understanding,” admitted a senior MNS leader.

“This is a question of our survival. We started off with US-style politics, but failed. We then adopted a highly polarising agenda targeted at Hindi-speaking migrants, which ensured we got 13 legislators. But now, we have dwindled down to just one MLA and one corporator in Mumbai… now, the party is testing the waters for another political narrative,” he said, adding BJP could patronise the MNS to eat into Sena’s right-wing Maharashtrian votes, and damage its prospects.

“Raj can sense which way the wind is blowing,” said a BJP leader, while pointing to the growing religious polarisation in India. “Shiv Sainiks are confused about Sena’s commitment to Hindutva… and Raj may attract at least some of them in Mumbai [in the civic polls],” he said.

The BJP leader said if not a formal alliance with the MNS, at least a seat adjustment, with the two parties helping each other informally to defeat Sena, would be possible in Mumbai and neighbouring cities.

The BJP leader pointed to another reason for Raj’s aggression against Sena. Raj and Uddhav had started off in politics almost at the same time, but gradually, Uddhav edged out his first cousin in the power dynamics of Sena to take over the mantle of his father, party supremo Bal Thackeray. Raj quit Sena in 2005 to float MNS the next year, and after posing what seemed to be an existential challenge to his parent party in 2009, gradually petered out. That Uddhav is now the chief minister of Maharashtra, lends a personal touch to Raj’s criticism of him and the MVA regime, he added.

Hemant Desai, journalist and political analyst, said the MNS would be seen as a “B-team of one party or the other, with no separate identity of its own.” “This frequent change of stance leads to questions on his credibility. BJP wants to capture the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, where Sena has everything at stake, by hook or crook… and here, it may use Raj to splinter Sena’s votes,” he added.