Raj Karega Jalsaa?

Mumbai is not burning. Bal Thackeray has been proved wrong. Somebody has dared to touch the Shiv Sena. His nephew, Raj, has quit. He will start a new political party. The city, instead of being on fire, is already calculating the extent of the razed structure.

Is Raj Thackeray the new hero?

The one time I saw him has remained etched in memory. I was waiting to get out of the car at an office building in Nariman Point. A monster SUV blocked the entrance. Two gun-toting bodyguards jumped out and stood at attention. A man wearing a starched shirt that would look better in a laundry than on a human body stepped out. He flicked his hair, which was blow-dried and very likely sprayed to stay in place, for that motion of the head moving did not seem to affect it; it flopped back in a neat fall. He went in, leaving the place reeking of an indecipherable strong fragrance.

It did not smell of power. It had the scent of obsessiveness about it. Even desperation.

Raj Thackeray, it was said, walked, talked and even thought like his uncle, the Shiv Sena leader. The man I saw that day seemed more like a small-time struggler faking it in a Bollywood blockbuster.

In some ways, that has been Raj’s story.

Little man tries to emulate marquee man. Realises with time that cloning does not work. Not in the long run.

In the short run it worked like a dream which turned into a nightmare for many.

Raj became the Sena’s ‘hitman’. In Hindi film terminology, he was the spot boy, the makeup man, the stunt artiste. The problem is, he started living those parts. He went around carrying a mirror to look at himself, he worked on his gestures, he took part in the street fights.

As sidekick he got a few brownie points and a place next to that ridiculous Maharaja chair that Balasaheb occupies. But he was no Birbal or Chanakya. He was just another loyal soldier with the right name.

During the Mumbai riots it was Raj who was known for his pugnaciousness (much as Sanjay Gandhi was during the Emergency). At the shakhas, Raj groomed the lumpens. He fit in perfectly in the Shiv Sena scheme of things. We must remember that when we talk about grassroots in Sena terminology, it essentially means being able to break things, create havoc and reduce your worldview to those who are born in the city versus the outsiders.

The Shiv Sena has never really been a Hindutva party. It hates Bihari Hindus. It hates UP Hindus. It hates Bengali Hindus. It only likes Maharashtrian Hindus, and that too those of a certain caste.

Shiv Sainiks from the lower rung of the caste hierarchy are soon shown where they belong. Chhagan Bhujbal, Sanjay Nirupam, Narayan Rane were all loyalists who left. Is it for greener pastures? Far from it. Their only claim to fame is that they defected. The few times they are quoted is when they have something to say about the Sena.

Will the same happen to Raj Thackeray?

At this very point, the prevalent query is whether Raj’s resignation heralds the Shiv Sena’s downfall. Absolutely not. Watch the game for a few more days.

The more important question to ask is: Should Raj be called Brutus or Hamlet?

This hinges entirely on how we see his relationship with Balasaheb’s son, Uddhav. The latter had not been groomed for roughneck politics. He was the protected one. When he decided to take those steps in, it was only natural that Raj would have to guide him. Looking back, since he says that his major problem is with his cousin, was Raj-Brutus thinking of Uddhav as a Cicero? Did he muffle the voices that droned aloud in his head…“O, name him not: let us not break with him; /For he will never follow any thing/ That other men begin”?

Or will Raj be Hamlet haunted by the ghost of his ‘father’ Old Hamlet who tells him about being killed by the ‘poison in his ear’ (how very symbolic can Shakespeare be at all times!)?

Did Uddhav blackmail his father? Even if he did, what happened to Bal Thackeray’s finger on the pulse of people? Right now it appears as though Raj has made the tiger purr, left to his kitten cabinet. His saffron robes and rudraksha beads look like a real-life caricature drawn by his own nephew.

It is a bit tough to accept that the man who threatened and worked on the fear psychosis of people would not get his basics right. Or maybe he has, and we are the fools who have not realised it. Maybe Raj Thackeray was mere hot air and Uddhav is the real balloon.

I suspect that it could well be the latter. For all his ‘‘I am a computer geek”, “I have all the figures in my hard disk”, Uddhav is probably a dark horse. He could well turn out to be the Vajpayee of the Shiv Sena with this huge benevolent mask that makes double-speak so easy.

The Sena is not what it was in its early years and what it grew to be in the 90s. Today there are no mill lands that make the workers dependent on mai-baap; trade union leaders are legally savvy; and slum-dwellers do not need protection – they go to the courts or bargain with builders themselves.

Big festivals are sponsored events, so there is no place for ‘donations’ collected by Shiv Sainiks. Extortion problems are solved by gangsters from opposing camps. The few film stars who go for ‘blessings’ are probably saving the longer journey up to Tirupati or even Siddhi Vinayak temple.

And when there is talk of ‘Marathi maanus” and “Marathi asmita” (self-respect), it does not have the same currency as ‘Hindu Rashtra’.

The strategy could well have been to make the ‘clean’ Uddhav become the visible face of the Sena. The only non-wayward son who takes photographs of animals. His family values are intact, too. He comes across as self-effacing and he looks like any other professional.

The message being sent out is that now that Raj is out, the Shiv Sena is not about goonda raj anymore. Mumbai not burning makes it all the more pacifist. Uddhav staying steadfastly by the side of his aging and ill father will give out all the right signals. He is a sharp cookie. He knew a few years ago that this was the only way to assert himself and win his father-leader’s affections. He knew that in national politics the SS dynasty would have no locus standi. He turned the head-buried-under-the-sand syndrome on its head. When he came out with a speckled face, he conveyed that he too could mean business. Devious.

Raj was too full of himself to notice this. Unfortunately, he is still behaving like a sidekick. His first major statement after the resignation is about reviving the issue of the Sena being for Maharashtrians. He has already alienated a lot of people who might have wanted to join forces with him. And his street-fighter buddies? They will be welcomed by other parties.

End result: Raj Thackeray holding a skull and a toy gun. Someone should have told him, never say never again.