Raj Thackeray's MNS: Real Navnirman or just another political party?

Media went ga-ga over Raj Thackeray's courtesy call to estranged cousin Uddhav Thackeray when the later went for angioplasty last week.  Raj actually drove him in his silver Mercedes to the later's residence, Matoshree.  It was a perfect reunion picture just like in the Bollywood films.  After all it was 6 long years and numerous jibes and potshots at each other later that the camaraderie was seen.

For starters, Raj and Uddhav are cousins not only from the paternal side but the maternal sides as well since Balasaheb and his brother married sisters Meenatai and Kunda Thackeray respectively.  From a very young age Raj was considered to be the heir apparent of the Sena Supremo Balasaheb.  And rightly so.  Both are cartoonists, both spew venom on people other than sons-of-soil ie Maharashtrians, both look similar and both are big crowd pullers.  While Raj is considered to be ferocious in his attacks, Uddhav is mild and has a softer approach.  And so despite all this when Uddhav was crowned the CEO of Shiv Sena instead of Raj, Raj took little time in expressing his displeasure and left the party to form his own Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

Raj Thackeray has always been the angry young man of politics.  He believes in the " laaton ke bhoot baaton se nahi maante" dictum.  What he feels is right he will ensure others accept it as well by force if not by choice.  Whilst in the Sena, he was the poster boy who was seen giving "bhashans" around the elections and is also believed to be the face behind the Sena's vandalism.  The style continues today as well.

Raj Thackeray is credited with quite a few things.  First of all he demanded that all telecom operators in Maharashtra should offer IVR services in Marathi along with English and Hindi.  The telecom operators had no choice but to abide by Raj saheb's wish.  Ditto with the agitation to have names of shops in Marathi as well.  Both the above demands were accompanied with warnings of violence.  I personally believe that violence is not good but his demands were completely justified.  Having traveled to many states in India I have seen both but it is only Mumbai where these things are not followed.  Though it is not a compulsion to have the state language as national language has utmost importance but then again Jawaharlal Nehru believed in the "divide and rule" policy which led to the creation of states based on language spoken and hence we have to bear the ill fruits of it.  So along with Hindi and English a mention in Marathi on signboards and for IVR is not a big demand.

After forming his new party, the MNS, during the initial years Raj was not very active.  He enjoyed his regular routine of a game of badminton at the gymkhana and other passions.  Only when the strong Maratha, Sharad Pawar mocked this attitude of his that he took full control of the day-to-day affairs of the party.  The people of Maharashtra have always liked Raj's oratory skills and this can be proved from the fact that inspite of being just a 3-year old party MNS managed sizeable amount of votes which created a dent in the BJP vote bank though it did not convert into seats.  Since then Raj's popularity has only increased.  The 2012 Municipal elections are a proof of it.  Not only did it rout Shiv Sena in its bastion of Dadar, it also got the post of Mayor in Nashik which is home to Chhagan Bhujbal, another heavyweight in Maharashtra politics.

People have shown faith in MNS particularly Raj Thackeray and he has not let people down.  His constituencies fare well as compared to others.

Raj Thackeray is a shrewd politician.  He stood for the rights of Jet Airways employees who were sacked and the decision as we can guess was in favour of the employees.  Another act of getting the marathi manoos vote for him was that he demanded reservations in the Maharashtra Railway Service and also created a ruckus at the examination center where the exams were held since his demands were not met.  Apart from that he is also an astute businessman.  A few years ago he bought land at Kohinoor Mills for roughly Rs. 400 crore and then sold it at an exorbitant profit of 400%.  Though Raj claims he had a minor stake and that he made very little profits it can't be taken for sure as politicians are known to hide or misrepresent their facts.

But things that make Raj Thackeray stand out are his genuine efforts to improve the condition of the state.  Recently he made his sainiks stand at toll plazas and calculate the amount of toll collected.  While calculations by him and the company may differ over the recovery cost and period he did bring out a few good points like if the contractor builds roads which develop pot holes within no time and give a pain to the commuters travelling, the commuter has every right to not pay the toll for bad services.  For me this was one of a kind approach for a cause which no one has given importance to.  Secondly while all of India's so-called "secular" netas like Digvijay Singh call Narendra Modi a communist and bring up the Godhra riots as they have nothing negative against him today due to his development policies, Raj called upon Modi and also toured the state to see how a state can be developed.  Even though Mumbai contributes to a third of tax of the country the roads are not even one third of the quality of what roads are in Ahmedabad.  Besides the irrigation facility for farmers is a boon in Gujarat.  This experience can be used in the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra as well as there are suicides every now and then due to droughts.  This is something what the Govt. of Maharashtra should do but they criticize Modi while Raj has chosen to emulate his development policies.

Raj has ensured that none of his corporators are involved in corruption and also seen that only people with sound knowledge of rules enter the Assembly for which he conducted an exam for aspirants of tickets in elections.  But the biggest comment from him so far are his views on the controversial Belgaum status.  While politicians from both states argue over which state should get Belgaum and have been doing so for 55 years, Raj gave a simple yet mature solution of keeping Belgaum in Karnataka where it is now but the people should be given all rights and should be treated fairly.  Well what else do people want apart from rights and equal treatment.  This has by far been the best solution given by him.

So at the end of it, Raj Thackeray has been making the right noises and also taking correct decisions.  Though some of his policies may not be correct and his way of getting work done unacceptable to many, he is the best hope in case Maharashtra were to be amongst the best states in India. Well giving him 5 years at the helm is no big deal.  If inefficient people have got so many years which are wasted why not give 5 years to a man who wants to bring about a change or "navnirman".