Not to write off Raj Thackeray just yet

Raj’s visit to Matoshree last week has been the subject of frenzied speculation with analysts almost in a froth to ascertain whether this was a family matter or a political realignment

As curiosity about human nature goes, I wonder how much insult a man can take and then still come around to help his tormentor. After Bal Thackeray’s death, I would not have believed that his nephew Raj Thackeray would ever put a foot inside Matoshree, the Sena supremo’s home, now the exclusive domain of his son and political heir, Uddhav Thackeray.

Today Raj Thackeray (right) is a cipher in politics and I do not think his cousin is of any mind to help revive the younger man’s fortunes by according him a role in his party. (File photo)

At the tiger’s funeral, Raj was not part of the cortege that left Matoshree for Shivaji Park.He made his own way to the cremation site. I am told his wife was insulted and almost thrown out of the premises by other members of the Thackeray household. When he brought vada-pav and chicken soup to his uncle during his illness, of course, his cousin was not amused – it almost seemed like a public statement that Thackeray was not being adequately looked after by his own family.

Read: Bal Thackeray will: Raj steps in to mediate between Uddhav and Jaidev

Yet, Raj’s visit to Matoshree last week has been the subject of frenzied speculation with analysts almost in a froth to ascertain whether this was a family matter or a political realignment. I would tend to think the former in view of the manner in which the fair name of the Thackerays is being dragged through the courts by Balasaheb’s older son, Jaidev. I recall in the years before Uddhav decided to take to public life, it was mostly Jaidev who accompanied his father on his tours at a time when Raj was being groomed to eventually take over from the Sena supremo. Both cousins had developed a great rapport with each other – rather more than either had with Uddhav --- but both were arrogant to the extreme and rude with Thackeray’s supporters to the point of repulsion.

That was when some of them like Manohar Joshi and the late Pramod Navalkar hatched a conspiracy to drive a wedge between them and weaken the family. While Jaidev became a victim of his own shenanigans, they managed to cut Raj off from Matoshree by sending him constantly on tours to the districts by pandering to his ego. They flattered him by describing him as the best campaigner after Thackeray and he began to believe in his own legend. When there was no election to campaign for, they kept him occupied in studios producing audio and video campaign material for the next elections. And they used Uddhav as a go-between with his father. Before Raj knew it, he was out of favour –and flavour – at Matoshree. He was kept waiting for hours along with ordinary workers in Thackeray’s public waiting room, sometimes he never got to see the Sena tiger at all and gradually just stopped dropping in.

But even after splitting from the Sena, Raj did not learn how to build bridges with the people. He never had a positive programme for his supporters. He was only recycling Thackeray’s 1960s Mee Marathi policies without any clue about how to use that to enhance the futures of the Marathi manoos in a globalised economy. When Uddhav Thackeray, who had a little more sense, tried to interpret Mee Marathi as inclusive of all communities who had been living and working in Maharashtra, making it their home for over 20 years, Raj immediately had his supporters descend on the streets and beat up North Indian students, taxi drivers and pheriwalas, working hard to make both ends meet.

In the beginning Raj Thackeray allowed himself to be a plaything in the hands of the Congress but after Thackeray’s death in 2012, everyone, including the Congress and the BJP, underestimated Uddhav Thackeray and Raj fell right between those two stools. (HT file photo)

But apart from those destructive campaigns, Raj’s major mistake was to believe he could survive through political skullduggery. In the beginning he allowed himself to be a plaything in the hands of the Congress but after Thackeray’s death in 2012, everyone, including the Congress and the BJP, underestimated Uddhav Thackeray and Raj fell right between those two stools.

Today he is a cipher in politics and I do not think his cousin is of any mind to help revive the younger man’s fortunes by according him a role in his party. Yet there are many Shiv Sainiks hoping the two will merge their forces in view of the threat from the BJP which is bent upon decimating the Sena before the next elections.

But I draw lessons from that veteran and intrepid exponent of political philosophies, Digvijaya Singh of the Congress: ``You can never celebrate the terhavin (13th day ceremony) of a politician until you have actually celebrated his terhavin (that is until he is really physiologically dead),’’ he had said.

In that case Raj isn’t about to be written off anytime soon, I should think!