As one of the earliest proponents of Narendra Modi as prime minister before the 2014 general election, Raj Thackeray did enjoy considerable admiration among the legions of the former’s gushing camp followers. Ironically, it is because of that very position that the 51-year-old Thackeray has now begun to build up a sizable number of supporters among the opposing camp as Modi’s most trenchant and unabashed public critic.
Thackeray, the founder of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, a rebellious splinter group from his original ideological home Shiv Sena some 13 years ago, was seen to be losing much of his sting for quite some time. However, in essaying a new role for himself as Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah’s most strident public opponent, he appears to have regained not just some of the lost political ground but, more importantly, the personal edge that first distinguished him.
Notwithstanding that he conducts them in Marathi, his speeches at meticulously organized public rallies in recent weeks have found considerable resonance among those who are looking for an emphatic counter-narrative to the Modi-Shah bluster. Thackeray, much like his more illustrious uncle, the late Bal Thackeray, deploys precision, wit and a measure of charisma to make his point, which is essentially that Modi and Shah must be not just defeated but resoundingly packed off into political oblivion.
He has pioneered the unusual style of projecting a series of video clips of the prime minister and other materials on giant screens at his rallies to buttress his main theme about how Modi and Shah have defaulted on and lied about all their promises even while assaulting the country’s institutions with impunity. In that context, his request in Marathi "लाव रे तो विडियो" or "Play that video" has become a political weapon of choice for him. This is a rather remarkable transformation/mutation for someone whose political ideas were learned at the Bal Thackeray school of subtle and not-so-subtle intimidation and browbeating of specific ethnic groups in Mumbai for political influence. To his credit, he seems to be pulling that new role off with much aplomb as he has emerged as the most sought after contrarian in Maharashtra against the Modi-Shah brand of electoral politics.
He goes about demolishing some of the core claims of Modi’s success with the efficiency of a US late night comedy host who have been taking on President Donald Trump’s generally ludicrous pronouncements and posturing. Thackeray, of course, largely keeps it serious as he makes the point how on all major fronts, such as employment, infrastructure, agriculture, Pakistan policy, terrorism policy and even relations with the media, Modi has failed so thoroughly. He goes a step further, actually many steps further, to even say that the duo pose a direct threat to India’s democracy. He makes regular references to how the two have taken a leaf out of Adolf Hitler’s playbook of manipulating the public opinion by constantly lying as well as misusing media controls. That in itself is quite a departure for him since his uncle Bal Thackeray was known to have some fascination with Hitler. I want to be charitable here and say that it is a sign that Thackeray Jr. has emerged from the looming shadow of his own larger than life uncle and that the clear rejection of Hitlerian ideas is an example of that. Of course, I could be totally wrong.
Raj Thackeray regaining sudden prominence as perhaps the most efficient counter to the Modi-Shah folklorists in Maharashtra is one of the more interesting sideshows of the world’s largest electoral exercise. Many of his fans have urged him to expand his footprint beyond Maharashtra given his obvious rhetorical talents in the mold of his late uncle. However, Thackeray has chosen to remain focused on his home state. He has argued that in the era of social media it is not necessary to cross state boundaries physically. The fact that his speeches are in Marathi does necessarily limit his political consequence but for now he seems content with remaining limited even as he gains some following elsewhere. His twitter handle has some English subtitles to his videos of Marathi speeches.
His utterances have inevitably opened himself to some rather colorful denunciation from the BJP affiliates. His role as Modi’s nemesis has been described in the quintessentially Mumbai underworld parlance as having “taken supari” on behalf of the prime minister’s opponents, particularly the ever-heralded and famously astute Sharad Pawar, the founder-president of the Nationalist Congress Party. Taking supari is part of Mumbai’s underworld lingo which means accepting a contract to rub someone out. In the underworld, it literally means killing someone for a price but in the political context, it means acting as a hatchet man on behalf of someone else. Thackeray responds to that charge rather persuasively saying he was equally critical of the Congress Party when it was in power for ten years prior to 2014. No one in the BJP thought of him then as having taken their supari.
The reason behind Thackeray’s complete disillusionment with Modi-Shah is multifold but broadly it because he feels that he and the country were sold a bill of goods in every area. He concedes that before the 2014 election, when he became among the earliest votary of Modi as prime minister, that during an extended visit to the state he was taken in by a rather craftily orchestrated show of all the development in Gujarat under Modi as the chief minister. He insists that Modi before 2014 and after are “two totally different men.”
It is quite interesting that Thackeray has been pushing all the buttons that Modi’s liberal critics have been pushing for the past five years. In the process, at the very least, he has gained some liberal attention despite his own rather unvarnished politics. It is questionable whether Thackeray can sway any votes away from the Modi-Shah combine even in his home state, his sole focus, let alone nationwide. However, in so much as there has emerged someone of his obviously effective rhetorical style deploying Modi’s own countless clips to cut the prime minister down to size, Thackeray is perhaps a necessary counter in this climate of shameless political grandiosity. Electoral politics in India, as elsewhere around the world, have become a gladiatorial sport and require gladiators from opposing sides. It does not work if there are only one or two gladiators from just one side piercing the air with their spears. In some sense, Thackeray has become that opposing gladiator.
I am not holding my breath over how he impacts the outcome in Maharashtra but his reinvention has certainly made the fight much sharper than it might have been. I am also not holding my breath over whether Thackeray has fundamentally changed his politics but am willing to see how he evolves. The signs so far are intriguing.