Byculla to Bangkok by Zaidi Hussain

Author:Zaidi, Hussain [Zaidi, Hussain]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-03-02T18:30:00+00:00

TWENTY-FOUR

Maharashtrian Mafia’s Anno Domini: 1994-95

Bal Thackeray, the founder of the right-wing Shiv Sena, had his fair share of idiosyncrasies. He never attended any public or private functions. From 1966 onwards, there was only one thing that he did consistently. He addressed the annual Dussehra rally at the huge Shivaji Park grounds in central Mumbai. Except on a few occasions, he never failed to turn up at the rally, where he raved and ranted at his opposition and exhorted the sons of the soil to rise and fight against ‘south Indians usurping jobs meant for locals’ or shouted his favourite slogan – ‘Muslims go to Pakistan’ – or vented against whoever his hatred was directed against at that point of time. The Shiv Sena’s Dussehra rally gave direction to the Sainiks. (It was much later that Bal Thackeray decided that a daily newspaper espousing his views would reinforce the Shiv Sena’s ideology.)

For many years, the Dussehra rally was something that not only Maharashtrians but other politicians waited for eagerly. The opposition parties in the state geared up for the next elections after they had listened to Bal Thackeray. Even national parties tuned in to his Dussehra rally. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, everybody talked about it.

Thackeray’s speeches were infused with rhetoric, vitriol and a dose of advice for the Marathi-speaking populace. He infused the spirit of Marathi pride in them, but in a roundabout manner. He derided them for their lackadaisical approach and exhorted them to be aggressive. His acerbic oratory and caustic speeches made headlines the following day, every time, in all the national dailies. In the era before 24x7 television news, thousands of Maharashtrians assembled at Shivaji Park to listen to Thackeray. Nothing could stop them from listening to their dearest leader. Not a single person budged even if they were pounded by torrential rain or if the sound system went haywire. Pakistanis joked that the rally was the only place in the world where a bomb hoax would not work. From the podium, Thackeray got away with making many a sensational, blasphemous pronouncement.

Even before the advent of the Shiv Sena mouthpiece, Saamna, on 23 January 1988,Thackeray had used the Dussehra rally to change his party’s colours: from a chauvinistic regional organization to a Hindu nationalist party.

The year was 1994. The venue, as usual, was Shivaji Park in central Mumbai. The audience – card-carrying members of the Shiv Sena and the common Marathi-speaking populace – numbered more than a massive one hundred thousand. The Shiv Sena had spearheaded one of the worst incidents of communal violence in Mumbai in January 1993, after the demolition the Babri Masjid. The city was still reeling in the aftermath of the serial bomb blasts of March 1993 that followed the communal pogrom. So, when Thackeray declared, ‘If they [Muslims] have Dawood, we [Hindus] have Gawli. These [Amar Naik and Arun Gawli] are aamchi muley [our boys],’ there was thunderous applause even before he had completed his sentence. It was as if the audience approved of Gawli being a challenger to Dawood’s might.

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