In Defense of Balasaheb Thackeray

As tributes flood news wires, Pink Chaddis predictably are getting their….well….Pink Chaddis in a twist. So let us educate them and set the record straight.

But before we get into the details allow me to narrate an amusing personal anecdote. A catholic (needless to say rabidly anti-Sena) friend once scolded me. A muslim neighbor had slaughtered a goat for Bakri id in his building’s backyard, a few feet from my friend’s doorstep. His exact statement was “What the fuck is your Thackeray doing. Why can’t he stop this nonsense”? I stood there dumbfounded. My only response was “When was the last time you or your family voted for Shiv Sena?”

What this incident illustrated was a schizophrenic relationship Mumbai’s Pink Chaddis had with the Sena. In private, Sena and its ‘goons’ were “those fucking Ghatis” ruining cosmopolitan BOMbay. But in deep recesses of their collective consciousness, when fear of marauding herds of Mullahs distilled their minds of any semblance of political correctness, they called out in pain to the one man they knew could help them. The one man whose aforementioned Ghatis had the courage (some may say foolishness) to place life and limb on the line to defend that liberal Indian culture called Hinduism.

Balasaheb was ‘Parochial’

No Indian politician can be considered devoid of his/her regional bias. Balasaheb was no exception. This phenomenon can be witnessed across the world. Example: Catalonia in Spain is witnessing a secessionist firestorm thanks to a stagnant economy. Closer to home, the anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu was supported by every single Tamilian politician cutting across party lines. This agitation had nothing to do with economic drivers. No one can diminish a great language like Tamil. But how easy it was (and still is) to rile up Indians based on regional sentiments.

That however, does not justify the violent methods adopted by Balasaheb first against south Indians and then against other non-Marathis.

Strong regional identities give birth to parochial politics. Why then should we single out Balasaheb. He was doing nothing different.

Balasaheb hurt Hindu ‘Unity’

Those who suggest that Saheb hurt Hindu unity must first acknowledge that the term ‘Hindu Unity’ is itself an oxymoron. India’s enslavement is a direct result of the endemic disunity that has been its bane since before the arrival of Muslim invaders.

Now that we have established Balasaheb as being no different from most other regional leaders vis-à-vis parochial regional politics, here’s why he remains Hindu Hriday Samarat.

1. Sacrifice the Marathi Cause for the larger Hindu Cause

a. When a rising Hindu Backlash presented a strong opportunity to usher in the first Hindu government in Delhi and Mumbai, Balasaheb sacrificed his son-of-the-soil, bread and butter issue in the interest of the larger Hindu Ummah. Has any other politician ever taken such a huge risk. No doubt, he left a flank open for a competitor to stake claim to the Marathi manoos vote bank, but in the interest of the much parroted but seldom practiced Hindu unity Saheb stepped up and embraced the transition.

b. Cynics may argue that the Marathi Manoos plank was a dead horse. In that case Raj Thackeray’s MNS should have been a non-starter. The Marathi manoos plank was and is, alive and Kicking, but Saheb choose Hindutva

2. Balasaheb as Robin hood

a. From combating rising milk prices by raiding Milk vans and distributing the spoils to poor Maharastrian families to helping educate kids from less fortunate, stories of Sena coming to the aid of the embattled common man are now legend. But what surprised even a politically informed person like me was the yeoman’s service rendered by Balasaheb to Kashmiri Pandits. Saheb had no skin in the game. KPs were a small, electorally insignificant community, concentrated in North India, where the Sena had little or no presence. Yet he helped them. He helped them by reserving seats Maharashtra’s educational institutions for Kashmiri Pandits. And THIS man was parochial. THIS man hurt Hindu unity. More importantly, neither he nor his party ever beat their breasts claiming these good deeds. That was the class of the man.

3. Bulwark against rising tide of Islamism

a. The past 5 years have witnessed a rising tide of Islamic aggression across India. From UP to now Hyderabad, a new Khilaphat movement is underway. Events of August 11 were a curtain raiser.

b. For years Balasaheb was the only real threat to these armies of darkness. Without him Hindus would have become a mere statistic

c. It is easy for armchair pundits (me included) to pontificate on the virtues of political correctness. But when the rubber meets the road, when a mullah is threatening to take your daughter (as a Christian Mala Sinha who went to Saheb to save her daughter from Music director Nadeem’s love Jihad) or impose Sharia on a innately liberal Hindu society, there are only two outcomes. Fight or Flight. Saheb and his ‘Ghatis’ stood their ground and fought. In the process they saved us from a Muslim Mumbai/Maharashtra.

Next time an Owaisi or Azam comes knocking on their doors, Hindus and Pink Chaddis will beg for a 1000 more Balasahebs to be reborn.