I am ready to reconcile with Bal Thackeray, but never Uddhav: Raj
In a revelation to a Marathi news channel, Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray said he would like to see his son Uddhav and nephew Raj come together. “If they came together, it would be the best thing,” Mr. Bal Thackeray told journalist Nikhil Wagle in an interview before the civic elections.
The channel aired the news on Thursday night. Mr. Bal Thackeray's comments were edited from the earlier interview and telecast on Thursday after polling was completed in the city. Mr. Bal Thackeray also said the estrangement between the two cousins had damaged Maharashtra. He said while he would like to see the two united, he could not force the issue. “After all you can take the horse to the water but you cannot make it drink.”
Raj Thackeray's new party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), was formed on March 9, 2006, after he broke away from the Sena. There has since been much mudslinging between the two cousins. In the 2009 General and Assembly polls in the State, the MNS pulled back many votes, affecting the Sena's performance badly. The Sena was left without a single MP in Mumbai and few Assembly seats.
Speculation has been rife on whether the two would come together again. For these civic elections, it was widely predicted that in the event of a hung house, the MNS could back the Sena. However, Raj Thackeray made it clear during a public rally in the city that he was ready to reconcile with his uncle but not Uddhav. He had said: “Bal Thackeray, I am ready to accept your love, your call to take the first step. I am ready to take a hundred steps forward for you, but for Uddhav and his naïve supporters, I am not willing to take even one step.”
Keywords: Maharashtra politics, Thackeray reconciliation
What of the DMK then where Dr Kalaignar blatantly proomotes his sons to the higher echoleons of the DMK when there are others who are not promoted. The fact of the matter is that all parties in India do the same, whether it is Congress, Shiv Sena,BJD promote dynasty politics. The left parties are the notable exception and frankly in my opinion they are the most suitable alliance to gain power in India as they would handle the maoist problem adeptly and solve the border dispute with China in an amicable manner. The BJP one could argue is another party that doesn't favour dynastical politics but they are far too reactionary and divisive in nature to be taken seriously as a real party in power, their economic and foreign policies would not be too different from the inept policies of the present congress led dispensation.
Thackerays claim to be upholders of Maharashtra and Marathi interests but only thing they do is politics of hate. There is nothing in their trackrecord which shows any visionary step (admininstrative/political/social) to have helped Maharashtra in big way. On the contrary their lumpen cadres acting on their behest have put a blot on the fair name of a glrious city like Mumbai. Regarding the reconciliation of cousins let them take million steps towards each other if they have to but state must ensure that if they are even one step out of line with law of land they must be brought to book.
Bal Thackeray talks against dynastic politics - but here we have
double dynastic politics. The fact of the matter is that all
politicians have made politics a business and want their children
to inherit this business. Talking does not change things.
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