Why Maharashtra needs the Shiv Sena

No, it has nothing to do with Hindutva or the Marathi manoos.

The current dispensation at New Delhi and Mumbai is quite reminiscent of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, with two very similar traits- the appointment of loyalists in states, and an overall disdain for dissent. While Mr Fadnavis is undoubtedly the brightest among the appointments made to the states so far, the opposition space is fast disappearing in Maharashtra despite the former’s perceived inclusiveness. As the BJP continues its winning blitzkrieg election after election, who is left then with the guts to take on the role of a meaningful opposition in the face of such frenzy? The NCP and Congress seem to be approaching the end of the product life cycle curve, with little hope of revival. Who then, but the original Frankenstein’s monster: the Shiv Sena.

While Matoshree is the plug behind the BJP’s power here, it is also the most bitter critic of the latter. Being kingmakers, they are immune from the CBI and the troll army, for now. As a consequence of this double play, they have lost both their ideological clout, and their traditional right-wing vote bank (the Sena lost everything but the corporations of Mumbai and Thane to the BJP this year when they contested independently). Be that as it may, Uddhav Thackeray has decided to continue with this; let's call it strategy. And Maharashtra cannot be more thankful.

Here are three examples where the Shiv Sena has been the hero and behaved as a much needed opposition.

GST/Local bodies

GST: a landmark move after a decade and half of dilly-dallying at the Centre. Except, it put the Mumbai civic body  at the risk of losing considerable octroi revenue. There was no legal safeguard against this. Until the Shiv Sena agitated, that is.  Now we have the Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax (compensation to the Local Authorities) Act 2017.

Farm loan waiver

Truth be told, Mr Fadnavis holds the higher moral ground here, since he has continued his principled stand of not granting the Rs. 30,000 crore farm waiver, a move that has kept the state out of a possible bankruptcy. Here, the Shiv Sena questioned the BJP’s hypocrisy by pointing out the Centre letting go of ex-Kingfisher Group boss Vijay Mallya, a defaulter to the tune of around Rs 7000 crore. How can the BJP ruled government afford pardoning a Rs. 7000 crore single defaulter while it says it cannot afford relieving lakhs of farmers’ families of just over four times that sum? A pertinent question that captured the attention it deserved.

Demonetisation

When the Central government unleashed demonetisation, every economist and sociologist worth their salt harshly criticized the move. The Shiv Sena too called it ‘a second Jallianwala Bagh’. Not that the BJP cared for their opinion, but it was enough for the world to take note that not everyone on the Hindutva bandwagon is in harmony with the whims of the PM.

All in all, as ludicrous as it may sound, we can say without doubt that the Shiv Sena is the only political party playing the role of a credible opposition in Maharashtra today. What happens after the assembly elections in 2019 remains to be seen.

अच्छा, विश्वासआजो !

घडे भोगणे सर्वही कर्मयोगे, मतीमंद जे खेद मानी वियोगे : असे समर्थ जरी म्हणत असले, तरी आम्हा मतिमंदांस हा वियोग पचवणे मुळीच सोपे नाही. माझ्यासाठी माझा लाडका विश्वासआजो, माझ्या आईला जीवापाड आवडणारा तिचा विश्वासकाका आता या जगात नाही. आम्हा दोघांचे त्याच्यावर निरातिशय प्रेम होते... दर काही दिवसांनी त्याची भेट घेणे,  त्याचा आवाज ऐकणे हे माझ्यासाठी संजीवनीच असायचे. माझी आई, आजो, पणजीबाई या सगळ्यांचे प्रतिबिंब मला त्याच्यात दिसायचे. त्याचा आवाज, त्याचे मिश्कील हास्य आता माझ्या कानांवर कधीही पडणार नाही या कल्पनेनी मन व्याकूळ झाले आहे. माझ्या बालपणातले तीन ‘हिरो’ म्हणजे माझे आजो, पणजीबाई आणि विश्वासआजो हे तिघेही आता माझ्या अवतीभोवती नसतील…

आमच्या लहानपणातील आठवणी डोळ्यासमोर उभ्या राहतात. मला आठवतंय, आजोचे ते आम्हाला थम्स-अप पाजणे, आत्याआजीच्या कडेवर अंगणात फिरणे, विश्वासआजो च्या मोटर सायकल वरच्या अनेक अनेक चकरा, आणि पणजीबाईच्या मांडीवर लागलेली झोप... तेव्हा कर्वे रोडच्या घरासमोर बाग होती, त्यातल्या झोपाळा घसरगुंडीवर तासंतास हे सगळे मला आणि पार्थला खेळवत असत. आजो, आत्याआजी, विश्वासआजो, परीक्षितमामा यांच्याबरोबर चित्र रंगवणे आणि पझल सोडवणे हा माझा लाडका उद्योग. थोडे मोठे झाल्यावर विश्वासआजोनी माझी ओळख ओरिगामीशी करून दिली. टिळक स्मारकातील ओरिगामी  प्रदर्शनाची लहानपणी मी आतुरतेने वाट पाहायचो. एका कुठल्या तरी प्रदर्शनात १२ फुटी ‘ट्रोजन हॉर्स’ त्यानी बनविला होता, तेव्हा त्या उन्हाळ्याच्या सुट्टीत मी त्याची थोडी मदत केली होती. त्या वेळी त्यानी माझ्या नकळत ‘सहाय्यक- ओम मराठे’ असे त्या पाटीवर लिहून टाकले. त्या प्रसंगी मला वाटलेला आनंद गगनापलीकडचा होता!

विश्वासआजोच्या जगाला माहित असलेल्या आणि नसलेल्या थोरवीची ओळख मला  मात्र जरा नंतर घडली. थोडा मोठा झाल्यावर मला आईने त्याच्या कर्तृत्वाबद्दल सांगितले... देवल भांड्यांचा कारखाना याची स्थापना पणजीबाई आणि पणजोबांनी जरी केली असली, तरी विश्वासआजोच्या चतुरस्त्रपणामुळे त्या उद्योगाची भरभराट झाली. अमेरिकेतले वैभव सोडून पणजीबाईला दिलेला शब्द पाळायचा म्हणून तो भारतात परतला होता. त्याच्या ओरिगामी सारखीच सुंदर आणि रेखीव कटलरी रेंज त्यानी लौंच केल्यावर कारखान्यात येणारे ग्राहक पुष्कळच वाढले. ‘देवल म्हणजे जणू चांदीच’ हे घोषवाक्य खऱ्या अर्थाने वृद्धिंगत झाले. देवल यांचे डिनर सेट अनेक उच्चभ्रू लोकांच्या घरात पोहोचू लागले.

तो कॉलेजमध्ये असताना त्याने गीतेवरही अभ्यास केला होता, त्याचे ते लेखन वाचण्याचे भाग्य मला काही महिन्यांपूर्वी प्राप्त झाले.

आई मला सांगत असे... ती आणि मा या दोघी त्याच्या डोळ्यातल्या ताईत होत्या. त्यांच्या लहानपणी तो त्यांना रोविंगला, पोहायला, सिनेमा आणि नाटक बघायला घेऊन जायचा. त्यादोघी आणि दोघे मामा यांना झोपायच्या आधी तो ‘बेडटाईम स्टोरी’ ऐकवायचा, ज्याचा सस्पेन्स त्यांना खिळवून ठेवायचा. दूरदर्शनवर त्यावेळी ‘येस मिनिस्टर’ ही ब्रिटीश मालिका लागत असे. तेव्हा अख्या घरात तशी इंग्रजीची चांगली ओळख त्यालाच असल्यामुळे तो ती मालिका बघताना अगदी उत्फुल्लित व्हायचा, आणि आईला त्याचे अत्यंत कौतुक वाटायचे. आई कित्येकदा सांगायची की  तिचा विश्वासकाका जेव्हा नवसह्याद्रीत शिफ्ट झाला, तेव्हा त्या चौघांच्या आठवणीनी ती अक्षरशः रडवेली व्हायची.

असा माझा विश्वासआजो आता पुन्हा कधी न भेटण्यासाठी शिफ्ट झाला आहे. आता त्याला देहरुपात बघणे जरी शक्य नसले, तरी त्यानी माझ्यावर आणि माझ्या आईवर केलेले प्रेम, आमच्यावर घडवलेले संस्कार आणि माझ्या मनातल्या आठवणींचा ठेवा हा कायम माझ्या बरोबर राहील.

El Libro que me cautivó

Un libro que me cautivó fue ‘Dividido por la Democracia (Divided by Democracy)’ del político británico de origen indio- Barón Meghnad Desai, y el político pakistaní Aitzaz Ahsan. India y Pakistan constituyen una superficie donde se halla cada quinta persona de la Tierra, con costumbres, idiomas y razas muy parecidas. Sin embargo, son grandes adversarios el uno del otro. Tal es la enemistad, que se amenazan entre sí con ataques nucleares en un santiamén, incluso por conflictos pequeños. En esta historia de odio, extraña mucho saber que hasta hace solo 70 años, estas dos naciones se originaron de una misma entidad- El Raj Británico, que formó parte del grande Imperio Británico. Entonces, se obliga preguntar por qué existe tanta rivalidad. La obra  trata de explicar al lector las causas por las que los países India y Pakistán siguieron caminos tan diferentes, escogiendo dos visiones del mundo contrarias entre sí.  

En la primera parte, Barón Desai cuenta la historia de la India después de la transferencia del poder a manos indias en 1947. Según él, el partido Congress, cuyos principales líderes- Gandhi, Nehru y Patel, compartían muchos ideales con los británicos- la democracia, el secularismo, la libertad de la prensa, entre muchas otras cosas. Por eso, la India aprobó una constitución escrita consagrando estos ideales, y organizó las primeras elecciones inmediatamente en 1950. Tras la muerte de Gandhi, los líderes Nehru y Patel, entonces Primer Ministro y Ministro del Interior, cultivaron una cultura de debates saludables, no solo en el Parlamento, sino también en las asambleas de las provincias. Lo que resulto es, en palabras de Barón Desai, los indios se convirtieron ‘adictos a la democracia’. Desde entonces, India se ha gobernado por la democracia hasta ahora, con partidos muy distintos estando en el poder, y cada gobierno transfiriendo el poder en paz.

Por otro lado, en la segunda parte, el político pakistaní Aitzaz Ahsan explica por qué Pakistan no siguió el camino de la democracia. Según/ de acuerdo a su opinión, el liderazgo de Pakistan, que luchó por la independencia de Pakistan, creía en un estado islámico, donde solo los musulmanes fueran el poder político. Con esta mentalidad, resultó que no se organizaron las elecciones populares hasta 1970, hasta cuando compartieron el poder los militares y terratenientes. Incluso después las elecciones, en las que ganaron el poder los izquierdistas, los feudales no les permitieron tomar cargo, resultando en una guerra civil, en la que murieron miles de inocentes. Hasta ahora, este país no tiene una democracia verdadera, y los mismos feudales y militares tienen todo el control.

Desde mi punto de vista, este libro divulga un episodio muy interesante en la historia del Sur de Asia, que separó dos países en dos direcciones muy diferentes. Sobre todo, los escritores han demostrado el poder que brinda la democracia al país, y también las cosas que suelen suceder en su falta.

US Elections: Five Takeaways!

The Leader of the Free World has been elected, and His election has shaken every single hitherto accepted political postulate that we have known. To say that the election has ‘ruffled feathers’ would be a gross understatement.

Here are the five major takeaways not only from this election, but also the global anti-establishment movement that brought Modi and Kejriwal to power in India, propelled Podemos into the Spanish parliament, removed Britain from the EU and ended Hillary Clinton’s career.

1.       A transformation of the current ruling class

In just 2014, the world had Manmohan Singh in India, David Cameron in the UK, Chancellor Merkel in Germany and most significantly President Obama in the White House, with numerous Cambridge, Oxford and Harvard degrees, Nobel prizes and accolades among themselves and perhaps every large corporation in the world financing them. This is now a thing of the past.

The establishment, or the status quo which ruled free democracies for the past few decades, will now undergo an open heart surgery. Dynasties such as the Nehru-Gandhi in India, Kennedy, Bush and Clinton clans in the US would disappear. With corporations funding them and party workers revering them, these elite, erudite, idealistic yet quixotic specimens, pandering to both the left and the right with fantastic political correctness, would soon be jobless. Power structures with new faces and new corporations holding the strings would emerge.

2.     Majority rule

Trump has reiterated what Modi proved in India in 2014. A majority does indeed exist and can be converted into a vote bank, to the point that the minorities can be completely overlooked (Modi’s BJP does not have a single non-Hindu MP in the Lok Sabha). Trump, however, went several steps further when he openly dehumanized Latinos and Muslims. His election has been heralded by white nationalists in the US. Brexit too, was achieved by glorifying the white British majority while discrediting the Polish immigrants and the Syrian refugees. ‘Mr Brexit’ Nigel Farage actively campaigned for Trump during the election season. Right wing fringe elements, whether or not they enjoy Trump’s support are truly having the time of their life.

3.     End of Left high handedness

It is not as if the people living in democracies have suddenly become communal. Neither do they hate socialist ideas. Subsidies in India, and Social Security and even Obamacare in the US, all socialist policies, have solid groundswell support. It is the arrogance of the establishment that proved to be its undoing. In India, the attitude with which the Congress handled the Anna-Kejriwal movement (the first important tremor in India before their 2014 apocalypse), or the gall of the Democratic Party in the US which fielded a candidate who was under trial in an ongoing FBI investigation, and had lied several times under oath among many other things, are examples of this arrogance. The electorate felt insulted and ‘threw in the cocktail’ at the polling booth, as Michael Moore would put it.

4.     Political correctness.

The establishment was politically correct to the point where many found it cringe worthy. A very recent example is Obama’s condolence message after the passing of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro: “His passing evokes powerful emotions both here in the US and in Cuba,” the statement read. One can easily see this deviousness as a ploy to dodge the two edged sword (which took the throat of Canadian PM Trudeau). If Castro’s death would have been lamented by the current President, then the massive Latino vote-bank in South Florida (which is currently celebrating on the streets the tyrant’s death), would have been offended. On the other hand, if Obama would have pandered to these Latinos, it would have cast a dark cloud on his ‘monumental’ visit to the diplomatically isolated island in 2014 and his so called legacy as a peacemaker.

Trump’s temperament needs no introduction and the fate of political correctness under his regime as the Leader of the Free World is anybody’s guess.

5.     Insulting the electorate’s intelligence

For the record, I do not think any electorate is ever intelligent. But nobody likes to be called stupid. And Obama, David Cameron, Hillary and the Gandhi family, with their overacting, did just that.

With their every generation attending Harvard, Oxford and St. Stephens, Eton and Doon School, they tried to compensate their disconnect with the real working class by heavily relying on their PR managers to do everything. Hillary with her sociopathic laughter right from the sight of balloons to the unveiling of the new Boeing aircraft, David Cameron in his ridiculous impersonation of a working class man riding the Underground, and Obama drinking beer mid campaign wearing a disgusting blue jacket. Who do these elites think the common people really are? The electorate knows exactly who the elites are, how much wealth they have and the aristocratic culture they belong to. 

Attention though. This is not a proletariat uprising. Trump never visited a train, bus or poor little factories for photo-ops. Forget declaring his taxes, he has repeatedly proclaimed how much wealth he has. Modi, too, spared no expense while jet-hopping across the nation in Gautam Adani’s private plane. The people know this. The electorate is just looking for better actors.

When the Marathas Belled a European Cat

Catholic church bell, marker of the fabulous Maratha victory over the Portuguese in 1739

Pune, with its enchanting weather, picturesque surroundings, and great cultural heritage, is home to several historic monuments in and around the city. It has seen several eras: from its inception during Shivaji Maharaj’s childhood, the Peshwa rule, the political base of famed anti-colonialists Tilak and Gokhale, and today as an IT hub. With every historic monument, there is always an interesting story intertwined. With the intention of reliving one such story, last month my friend Heramb and I went off on an escapade towards the east of Pune, to visit the Chintamani Ganesh temple at Theur. The Chintamani temple, having witnessed the many ups and downs of Pune ever since it became a city of prominence, has become part of the aura of the place, having been interwoven into it's history and culture.

From a religious standpoint, the Chintamani temple at Theur is said to house the Chintamani incarnation of the Hindu lord Ganesha, one among his eight manifestations, whose temples are scattered across Maharashtra, known as ‘Ashta-Vinayak’ or The Eight Ganeshas. 

Said to be built by the contemporary ascetic Morya Gosavi in the 16^th century, it wasn’t until the rise of the Chitpavan rulers of the Maratha Empire in the beginning of the 18^th century that this temple got its present importance. These rulers, appointed as ‘Peshwa’ ministers (Persian for Prime Minister), adopted the Chintamani Temple as a family deity, due to which the temple began to enjoy a special religious status. It is noteworthy that these rulers, who went on to control the dominion themselves, brought a third of present day India and parts of Pakistan under the realm of the Maratha Empire, until their expulsion in 1818 at the hands of the British. With the powerful Peshwa family having its seat of governance first at Saswad and then at Pune (both near Theur), this temple’s stature continued to rise.

We decided to visit Theur on a windy Saturday morning, with the quaint countryside punctuated by post-monsoon showers. The village, just like any pilgrimage town, is small and unclean, with hawkers peddling temple offerings such as flowers and coconuts right from the parking lot up to the entrance of the temple. We parked our car and zipped across this market to enter the Chintamani temple. When we entered the premises, the object which greeted us was one of the principal reasons why we chose to visit this place. Not a sword, not jewels, not sculptures, but a Catholic church bell!

This Catholic bell, now a part of the temple, is so indistinguishable from the remainder of the structure, that if it weren’t for the Greek markings on its hull, we would have easily ignored it too, as do all other normal pilgrims. This bell marks a watershed milestone in Maratha politics and tells a fascinating story about Indian and Maharashtrian history, which goes like this:

In 1737, a conflict ensued between the Marathas and the Portuguese Empire. Within the next two years, the Peshwa rulers, now with their second generation at the helm of Maratha affairs, had captured among others the strategic Thane Fort and Salsette Islands, isolating the Portuguese at Bassein (now Vasai, near present day Mumbai), their imperial capital. which enjoyed more power and prestige than their other colony at Panjim in Goa. In 1739, a member of the ruling Peshwa clan, Chimaji Appa, set out with an expeditionary force towards Bassein, unfolding a set of events which history would seldom permit happening again in the coming ages. Chimaji Appa emerged victorious, delivering such a decisive blow, that the Portuguese Empire in the Maharashtra region ceased to exist. Such was the rout that the Portuguese had to abandon their capital, and relocate to far off Goa and Diu (where they continued to rule until 1964). An Indian kingdom had humbled a superpower feared the world over. 

Bassein, which now lay ravaged, was earlier said to be a Portuguese colonial wonder, with several churches and an Iberian town layout. Chimaji Appa, himself fascinated with the spoils, carried some of the church bells back with him to Pune. As a memento celebrating the victory of natives over foreign aggressors, he then had them installed at Hindu temples having Peshwa patronage, one of them at the Chintamani temple at Theur.

We simply sat in the temple courtyard, trying to visualize events as they would have taken place at the very spot, some three centuries ago. As remarkable as this moment is in Maharashtrian history, equally appalling is the attitude of the temple authorities which have not deemed it fit to install even a single plaque commemorating the historical importance of the bell, the Maratha-Portuguese war, Chimaji Appa, or even the Peshwa family. Few decades after the victory over the Portuguese in 1739, the fourth generation Peshwa Madhav Rao I, under whose leadership the Maratha Empire revived its tenacity in North India after the disastrous Panipat campaign against the Afghan kingdom, made the Chintamani temple his home during his final days, and breathed his last here in 1772. There is no memorial in the temple dedicated to this great ruler either, and the only one there is stands in squalid conditions a five minutes’ walk away. 

It made me wonder: if Germany, which even maintains its World War era concentration camps with the same seriousness and dignity as it maintains its palaces and museums, in spite of them being reminders of one of the darkest periods in their history, can we as a future 'super power' not have the simple initiative of maintaining monuments that are markers of one of the most golden moments of our own?

Having done some more sightseeing in the vicinity, we drove back to Pune, having relived a golden chapter in this city’s history.