The incident (oops, I mean the ‘accident’) is not a rotten one. Only recently, Jaya Bachchan’s alleged anti-Marathi remarks hogged the limelight and captured the headlines for a good number of days. And why not? Involved in the scene were a few big shots… Jaya (already named), Amitabh Bachchan (of course) and Raj Thackeray (who else it could have been when anti-Marathi things are on?).
The lady Bachchan only said at her son’s upcoming film Drona’s premiere that since they (also Priyanka Chopra) were from Uttar Pradesh, she would speak in Hindi. (Additionally, she asked the Maharashtrians to excuse her for doing so!). But the dialogue did offend the MNS chief to a large extent. To such a degree that he declared to block screening of all the films featuring any of the Bachchans in Maharashtra. Not just that – as an ‘icing on the cake’, Thackeray asked Maharashtrians to embargo all products endorsed by the Bachchans accusing them of having ‘poison in their minds’ for Marathi people. Terrified or whatever, Jaya and Amitabh sought forgiveness and tendered a public apology. Bloated a touch of hullabaloo about that, but finally things went down the drain as Raj accepted the Bachchans’ act of contrition!
‘Mr. Maharashtra’, undoubtedly, succeeded in drawing a lot of flak countrywide via this episode, once again. Kick-starting his political career as a youth-wing leader in his uncle Bal Thackeray’s party – Shiv Sena, he soon went on his own way, forming his own party – Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Now, there were copious conjectures as to why he alienated from his uncle’s party. Like many others, it baffles me as well… at a time when he had steadily rose up the ranks with his charisma and had become the second God in the party, what went astray that he had to move out? One speculation was that due to Bal Thackeray’s son Uddhav’s entry into the party, Raj had to make an exit. Another hearsay makes more ground (to me at least). His alleged involvement in the Ramesh Kinny murder case! And only then, Uddhav marked Raj’s ‘proxy’! Though Raj has always maintained that he broke away from Shiv Sena because that party was ‘run by petty clerks’ and due to that it had ‘fallen from its former glory’.
Conveniently tagged as a hothead speaker, Raj probably had bitten more than he could chew!
Now, let’s come back to the recent account we started with. My question to him, here, is: does he want to split India on the lines of states of origin? Must he shed light on it; I need clarification. Do we need to remember the immense efforts executed by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel – the iron man of India – who put together the erstwhile 600 princely states into one dominion, India? Isn’t the ‘honourable’ Raj Thackeray cropping up as somebody who wishes to flush those efforts out of our minds? Doesn’t his agenda seem to disintegrate this nation? If he dares deny this, let us expect a better explanation from him about his watchword ‘Jai Maharashtra’, which (ideally) should be ‘Jai Bharat’ if he really dreams to emerge as a national political leader.
His bitter outburst against the Bachchan family did raise my eyebrows, once again. Even in the recent past (few months ago, to be precise), his superfluously bubbled tirade against Amitabh became a national debate topic. He demanded to know Big B’s contributions to the State. I demand to know his contributions, if any!
Mr. Thackeray, you need a reality check. Let me help you. During the late 70s and 80s when the Indian cinema was on the verge of ‘extinction’, this Amitabh factor emerged as a knight in shining armor. A lot of artistes, technicians, along with Maharashtrians (read Indians) got a new life... they literally became able to earn their bread and butter. Now tell me, what have you done to uplift (at least) Maharashtra’s economy?
As long as an individual – an Indian or not an Indian – is contributing to the nation, it barely matters where he stays, Maharashtra or Delhi. A political leader (read Raj Thackeray) must understand that there are much more serious problems to deal with than such petty things.
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