My Name is Can't!

Is exactly what Bal Thakrey must be thinking right now... The old tiger sought to give Mr. Khan a good fight and what did he get in result??... Broken teeth at the very least... The failure of Shiv Sena to dissuade the masses, Marathi & Non Marathi, from indulging themselves by watching MNIK is probably the last nail in the coffin of Shiv Sena... And it is quite sad that a party which was founded on a just cause, although the means it used to attain that cause were never right, now finds itself in an unenviable place... Almost universally despised, it is now shorn of the last vestiges of support that it might have had...

Before you declare that Shiv Sena was always fighting a losing battle and that its heart was never in the right place, Consider this... Uptil almost 1960, Gujarat & Maharashtra were one state which went by the name of Bombay State... The capital of Bombay State was Bombay, a bilingual Cosmopolitan city, with Gujjus & Marathis as the 2 main communities which vied for power & influence. The Gujaratis had the money, the Marathis had the numerical superiority... Once it was decided that the Bombay state was to be partitioned into a Marathi speaking Maharashtra & a Gujarati speaking Gujarat, the issue of Bombay proved to be a contentious one... Proponents of Marathi statehood (call them Marathi nationalists if you want to) were genuinely concerned that the new state of Maharashtra would be deprived of the city of Bombay , which was to become a Union territory... For any Marathi, Bombay was the epitome of the greatness of a Marathi speaking state... Inspite of the fact that the city was what it was as a result of the efforts of almost all Indians irrespective of caste, or language, Bombay to any Marathi 'manoos' in the 60s was the heart of Maharshtra... And since then, even though a Marathi speaking state with Bombay as its capital came into existence, there has always been a section of population that feels insecure & threatened that Marathi culture & language are under attack by some mysterious evil force...

And at some level, they might not be entirely wrong... Can you imagine being in Chennai and talking in Hindi??..You'd feel socially ostracized to the point that you'd either leave that city or you'd learn Tamil in bits and pieces... Now imagine Mumbai... You wouldn't need to know Marathi to survive Mumbai... Pune, may be... But Mumbai not at all... So, it is not entirely illogical that some persons, you may judge them as bigots and separatists, feel threatened that the Mumbai, they won by sactificing their blood is again slipping out of their hands....

Which brings us to the point of the Shiv Sena... It needs to make up its mind on some points, if it is to remain politcally relevant and not be reduced to the status of a politcal irritant...

1.) What is its ideology?... It can either be Hindutva Or Marathi Nationalism... It can't be both at the same time... Shiv Sena can choose to support the 'Hindu Cause'... or it can support a 'Marathi' Cause...If it chooses the former, then Backward castes from U P should be as much relevant to it as are Marathi Brahmins in Pune...If it chooses the latter, then Muslims in Malegaon should be of as much concern to the Shiv Sena as are Hindus in Kolhapur...

2.) If political relevance is of any concern to Shiv Sena, then it must choose between what can be described as Political Conservatism and Extremism... Being Conservative would mean that they support traditional Hindu/Marathi Values... Being Extremist would imply that they would impose those values on others...

3.) And Finally, Shiv Sena needs to decide who its political Opponents are... Congress with its history of minorityism seems an obvious choice... But the BJP, which is on a similar pseudo-conservative-extremist platform has emerged as a new bete-noire... Shiv Sena can choose to ally itself to Sambhaji Brigade which is Casteist, but at least Marathi or other similar fringe elements...

Shiv Sena can choose to break windows, tables, desks... Set things on fire... Let loose thugs chanting "मराठी माणूस जागा हो !"... assault couples & lovers... or it can choose to find Political Relevance which would actually further the cause of Marathi Manoos....The choice is theirs to make!