After being thrown out from the national and state politics, Raaj Thaackery makes a desperate attempt of political point scoring by targeting Tableeghi Jamaat
Indian politics has remained unpredictable as ever. From the hegemony of Gandhi family to the emergence of Aam Aadmi Party, the game of politics has seen many ups and downs. Indian voters have shown mixed and unbalanced trends since last few years. Congress Party with its historic and deep-rooted basis in the public has been wiped away from the corridors of power on central level while a newly formed common man party led by Arvind Kejrwal is becoming habitual of clinching almost all seats of the assembly of India’s capital. Good governance has become a constant for the Delhi government and Anti-Muslim policies for the Central government led by RSS inspired Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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The trends of voting suggest that Anti-Muslim policies and strong stances against Pakistan have always proved to be fruitful for parties seeking central government. BJP has always done politics over anti Pakistan and anti-Muslim stances due to its RSS inspired narratives of Akhand Bharat and Hindutva.
There has been a major shift in Indian electoral pattern recently, let’s take two largest Indian metropolitans for an instance;
New Delhi has been India’s capital for centuries even before India’s exception. It’s the capital with strong cultural, educational and social lineage. Delhi is experiencing a major turnaround in its electoral politics as Arvind Kejrwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is in government with land sliding mandate for the second time. The oldest parties of the country BJP and National Congress are nowhere to be seen in the Delhi’s government. This refers to the negation and rejection of the anti-Muslim politics of BJP which has won its second term for the central government but its electoral presence is almost diminished from Delhi’s government. Moreover, Delhi people were on the forefront in the protests held against the CAA bill by the central government. Shaheen Bagh was the place where the women led protests continued for more than 100 days and ended on 24 March due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
On the other hand, we have India’s largest commercial city, Mumbai. It was called Bombay and famous for its diversity and welcoming ambience where countrymen from all parts of India came and made their lives. It was considered to be the best city of the country.
A vigilante political force appeared in Bombay named Shiv Sena which was led by Baal Thackeray. The city became fearful with the violent and extremist politics of Shiv Sena which wanted a Hindu and Marathi dominated state. Shiv Sena was involved in many violent activities under the leadership of its supreme mentor Baal Thackeray who was a name of fear for the people. They even threatened Pakistani team not to play in Bombay.
Like Delhi, Mumbai and the whole Maharashtra seen a swift yet decisive transition as Baal Thackeray died and his son Udhaav Thackeray assumed the leadership of the party. Baal Thackeray’s nephew Raj Thackeray had already parted his ways from his uncle’ party and formed a new political party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena(MNS). MNS strictly followed the stance and policies of Hindutva and anti-Muslim stance.
The decisive turn in the voting pattern saw the first Shiv Sena Chief Minister in Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray who became famous for being different from his father’s anti-muslim policies. He seems to be a smart political gameplayer who anticipated the change in the voting pattern in the state.
While Baal Thackeray’s nephew Raj Thackeray insisted on continuing the politics of Hindutva and anti-muslim stance, he has been out rightly rejected by the people of Mumbai and Maharashtra. His party managed to secure a single seat in the recent state election facing shameful defeat.
Raj Thackeray, a political orphan with no electoral presence in current politics, is doing political point scoring on his anti-Muslim narrative which is rejected by his own voters. Recently, in his statement, like others political naïve and extremist politicians, he lambasted the Indian Tableeghi Jamat in a desperate attempt to get some political mileage. In the wake of Coronavirus, when the whole world is in crisis, India faces great challenges within its own ranks, this lousy politician wants to ignite the sentiments of millions of Muslims living in India.
This must be propagated that the Indian media and government wants to make a national crisis out of a global pandemic. Their aims of Hindutva will make the 1.3 billion inhabitants of India suffer big time, if the machinery of state will be focusing on how the Muslims should be targeted rather than controlling the pandemic, the consequences will be dreadful. Marginalizing a vast minority of 200 million people will be devastating and outrageous. The consequences will haunt the dream of Akhand Bharat as there may be no “Bharat” left to make it “Akhand (Undivided)”
