So frequently has the allegation that Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray "betrayed Bal Thackeray's Hindutva" been levelled at the former CM in the past weeks by those who toppled his government that it's time to ask: What's the evidence? Was it his aligning with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress, both politicians against whom his father and Sena founder Bal Thackeray railed throughout his life? But then, didn't Narendra Modi's party form a government in the sensitive state of Jammu and Kashmir with the People's Democratic Party (PDP)'s Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and then his daughter Mehbooba, both of whom the BJP had always attacked? The government lasted over two years. Nobody accused Modi, who later called it an "experiment", of betraying Hindutva. Aren't other politicians entitled to carry out similar experiments?
The real question is: what actions of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government hurt Hindus? Was it the action taken against 18 policemen, with three of them being dismissed or asked to resign, who allowed a tribal mob to lynch two sadhus and their Hindu driver in Palghar in April 2020? Not one state government has punished policemen who've stood by as mobs have lynched Muslims since 2015 in broad daylight and full public view. The only government which dared to punish men in uniform for doing nothing while two men in saffron were lynched was headed by this alleged betrayer of Hindutva. His home minister was from the NCP, and his minister of tribal affairs was from the Congress.
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Or was it the announcement last year that special buses would be run for worshippers to return to their villages for the Ganpati festival? The man who made this announcement was transport minister Anil Parab, one of the few veteran Shiv Sainiks who's stayed on with Thackeray. Around the same time, citing Covid, Muslims were denied permission to run area-wise markets where goats could be sold before Bakri Eid. Despite Parab's gesture that enabled Maharashtra's Hindus to celebrate their favourite festival despite Covid, the BJP, which swears by Hindutva, set the ED on him.
But it is not these small but crucial details of community life that made the BJP attack Uddhav Thackeray. What got their goat was his government's ability to counter their attempts to give a communal colour to every incident, be it the Palghar lynching, the sudden gathering of migrants at Bandra station during the first lockdown, the Sushant Singh suicide in June 2020, or the fake case against Shahrukh Khan's son Aryan filed by the Narcotics Control Bureau. Even Raj Thackeray's campaign against loudspeakers in masjids ended as a damp squib, thanks to the way the police and the Muslim community handled it.
This was new for the BJP. In all their years in power in Maharashtra, the Congress and NCP could never oppose the Hindutva party's attacks on them effectively because of their fear of being labelled anti-Hindu and their own desire to appease the majority community. Hindutva rabble-rousers of all hues, and their lumpen cadre, got free rein during their rule. But no such fear inhibited Thackeray, for he was the heir of Hindutva's original icon and could spout Hindutva rhetoric whenever he wanted. Besides, for him, the BJP was not just an opposition party but the enemy. It wasn't an ideological fight he was involved in with Modi, Amit Shah and Devendra Fadnavis; it was a battle for survival.
Thackeray did use the full might of the State whenever attacked by the BJP or its proxies, which meant taking on the Centre with all its agencies and media support. But in this unequal battle, were ordinary Hindus hurt? An English news anchor and a Hindi film actor, both of whom ran a virulently communal and personal campaign against the CM, were made to pay. One could say the actions against them: arrest and demolition of property, were excessive, but were Hindu sentiments insulted by these actions? Raj Thackeray's call to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside masjids was ignored even by his followers, leave alone ordinary Hindus. So it can hardly be said that the arrest of MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband, who came all the way from Amravati to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside the Thackeray residence, hurt Hindu sentiments, whatever the merits of the arrest.
Had Thackeray ordered the arrest of innocent Muslims for the Palghar lynching and the Bandra migrant gathering; the harassment of Bollywood's Khans for Sushant Singh's suicide; the forcible removal of masjid loudspeakers, the BJP might have had to find another stick to attack him. But he didn't, and Muslims breathed easy. In that, the BJP and its brand of Hindutva were certainly defeated.
(Jyoti Punwani is a journalist)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.