Although we are now in the age where daily advancements in transportation and communication technology move us towards a globalism where physical distance faces shrinkages, it is still fair to suggest that when it comes to the politics that shape the policies of a nation, geographical realities cannot be discounted from the fundamental elements that go into the numerous calculi. Geo-politics is very much a determinant of any countrys direction in policy. When it comes to Sri Lankas relations with our mighty neighbour India, with whom we share our longest historical narrative of relations as separate nations, the obvious factor has been the geographical proximity we share with each other. From my observations the general tendency in our country is to look at Indian politics with relevance to two very specific strands in its political spectrum. Our focus falls on New Delhi as the central Indian government and Tamil Nadu as Indias southernmost state and the closest political entity to Sri Lanka, which since time immemorial has stirred antipathy towards our country. It is always a perception of what sort of a nexus comes into being that affects Sri Lanka as to what the centre (New Delhi) will do in relation to the peripheral state government (Tamil Nadu) and vice versa. Today as like it has been always, TNs Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram et al with their bellicosities against Sri Lanka forms the crux and directs the thrust of what defines our political relationship with India. Towards central India My focus in this article is to veer off the usual track on Indo-Lankan relations and gaze at the great central Indian state of Maharashtra, which has its state assembly polls coming up in October this year, and more specifically to look at the figure who has been called by some Maharashtrian media, the X factor in Maharashtrian politics. The name Shiv Sena is perhaps familiar to Sri Lankans as the name of a Hindu organisation in India. But apart from those who keenly read about world affairs and are inclined to do their own research, many in Sri Lanka will likely assume Shiv Sena is an extremist Hindu group that perpetuates violence. How that organisation started off as a movement by its founder the late Bal Thackeray, to advance the scope for employment for unemployed Maharashtrian people is perhaps little known among most of us. India is very diverse and thereby complex when it comes to the ethno-lingual composites that form its cultural landscape. And this cultural diversity stems from and continues to have its territorial bases forming the political spheres that form the numerous states in India. Maharashtra, which translates to Great (Maha) Kingdom (Rashtra) is the land of the Marathi people. The Marathi manoos as the people of Maharashtra are referred to in Marathi are the people of Maharashtra who claim their mother tongue as Marathi, which being one of the Indo-Aryan languages rooted in Sanskrit and Pali (like Sinhala) has kinship with Hindi, but stands very much on its own right as a separate language and not a dialectical variant of Hindi. To the average Sri Lankan from the masses, the territorial demarcation that lends to cultural and lingual differentiation in India is simple - there is Indias North and South, and the lingual composite of India is simply Hindi and Tamil. The southern states of India speak Tamil and the rest speak Hindi. But in truth it is far more complex than that. Party dynamics of Maharashtra The party politics in Maharashtra I have been made to understand take on something of a unique local character where the mainstream national parties like the Congress and BJP must seek alliances with local parties in order to secure substantial votes at polls be they Lok Sabha or Maharashtra State Assembly polls. Glimpsing at the news coming in from Maharashtra one would see that the hot topic now is how will, the aforementioned X-factor perform, at the State polls? Who is this X-factor you may wonder? He is the founder leader of the party known as the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (Maharashtra Reformation Army) or simply called the MNS. By his full birth name he is Swararaj Shrikant Thackeray. As the voice for Maharashtrian reform based on home state preference to Marathi manoos in all spheres of employment and commercial opportunities in Maharashtra, he is Raj Thackeray. The nephew of the late Bal Thackeray, Raj Thackeray left the folds of the movement founded by his uncle and formed his own party -the MNS on March 9, 2006. Professing intentions to abstain from harbouring enmities or hostilities with the Shiv Sena and his uncles son Uddhav Thackeray who succeeded to the leadership of the Shiv Sena upon the death of Bal Thackeray, a primary motive of the charismatic founder of the MNS was to create a political party that could transcend some of the limitations he had encountered in the Shiv Sena which has in its core a dimension of religiously angled outlooks as to how its policies should be enunciated. Perhaps one may conjecture whether Raj Thackeray in his outlooks to encompass a more inclusive framework for Marathi manoos believes that religion need not be a criterion that articulates his conceptions for a Bhumi putra policy within Maharashtra. A person who professes Marathi to be his mother tongue, born and bred in the state of Maharashtra, and thereby a registered voter in the state of Maharashtra, would qualify to the multitudes for whom Raj Thackeray claims he will be a voice and a hand to mould reformations supportive of their birth right within the state of Maharashtra, to get employment in both the private and government sector. In this regard Raj Thackeray and his MNS are not seen as having antipathy towards Muslims and other non-Hindu Marathi people in Maharashtra, if they fall within the scope of the earlier cited attributes of Marathi manoos. One of the chief criticisms levelled at Raj Thackeray and his MNS are the strong arm street politics that they engage in. The outlook of the MNS chief in this regard has been that when laws that claim to ensure the rights of the Marathi people are not implemented, and limited to the nature of paper rules one as he must take matters in to his hands to make those laws meaningful as laws with material consequences. Workers causes As an entity that has significant affinities with workers unions in Maharashtra the MNS has had its share of successes in securing rights in the sphere of workers interests. One of the significant incidents being the matter of retrenchment planned by the Indian airliner, Jet Airways, affecting over 1,000 employees. The incident had happened in October 2008, on the eve of Diwali. Jet Airways had retrenched 800 temporary workers and announced a further layoff to follow of another 1,100 workers. The laid-off workers included Marathi as well as North-Indians. The affected ex-employees had met the MNS chief and urged him to intervene. Raj Thackeray had declared that most of these workers had paid security deposits to the company, and he would meet the airlines management to plead their case. His position was that unless Jet Airways cancelled the layoffs, the MNS would not allow any Jet Airways plane to take off from any airport in Maharashtra. Within 12 hours of Raj Thackerays assertions, Jet Airwayss management reversed the retrenchment decision and reinstated the affected employees. In this sense Raj Thackeray appears a man who will champion the cause of the small man over the wealthy through means of persuasion that may not be legal, but perhaps in his view just, for the cause he represents and fights for. The political agenda of Raj Thackeray includes a very strong stand of celebrating the Marathi language and Marathi culture. The MNS is known to be an organisation that organises events to promote Marathi literature, and support Marathi films to get their fair share in the intensely competitive Mumbai film distribution and theatre circuit. One such incident being when the movie Chennai Express sought to oust the Marathi film Duniyadari from the circuit while the latter was doing well. The MNS chief had immediately intervened and declared that unless an equitable arrangement is formed to accommodate Duniyadari and not subject it to an untimely termination of screening, the theatres screening Chennai Express would face dire consequences
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 06:52:10 +0000
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