In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena’s political dilemma

It wants to maintain its Hindutva identity. It also wants to remain in power with ‘secular’ parties. This isn’t easy

When the Shiv Sena snapped ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the government in Maharashtra with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), it was evident that this would be an uneasy alliance. The Sena’s political worldview revolved around Hindutva, placing it at odds with the “secular” political agenda of the Congress and the NCP.

Three months later, this tension is now out in the open, with its clearest manifestation in the differing positions of the coalition partners on the Bhima-koregaon and Elgar Parishad cases. It has its roots in chief minister and Sena chief, Uddhav Thackeray, giving his consent to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to probe the Elgar Parishad case. The NCP, which holds the home department, is upset at the decision, and the Congress has also struck a note of dissent.

But what is driving this difference in approach? The answer lies in the alleged involvement of fringe Hindutva groups in the Bhima-koregaon violence.

On December 31, 2017, allegedly inflammatory speeches were given at the Elgar Parishad at Shaniwarwada in Pune. The conclave commemorated the battle of Bhima-koregaon on January 1, 1818, where a small detachment of the British army, comprised largely of Dalits, held off a larger force of the Brahmin Peshwas. A day after the Parishad, there was violence against Dalits, who had thronged the Bhima-koregaon war memorial in lakhs to pay their respects.

The Pune police booked and arrested Left-wing and civil society activists, who were accused of waging war against the State, and being involved in a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This sparked counter-accusations. Prakash Ambedkar, the chief of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), and NCP leaders, blamed leaders of Hindutva outfits, Milind Ekbote and Sambhajirao Bhide “Guruji” for the Bhima-koregaon violence.

Ekbote, who heads the Samasta Hindu Aghadi, comes from a family affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He also contested the 2014 assembly elections from Pune as a Sena candidate. Ekbote was arrested for the violence and later released on bail.

However, it is Bhide and his group, Shivprathisthan Hindustan, which present a bigger predicament for the Sena. As party leaders acknowledge in private, it is not possible for them to take a position against Bhide or any Hindutva activists, for it will be seen as a dilution of the Sena’s commitment to Hindutva. This is despite the pressure from the NCP, which is keen to expand its base among Buddhist Dalits.

Shivaprathisthan, which has a strong base in parts of Western Maharashtra, is among the most influential fringe Hindutva groups in the state. The group’s popularity and outreach has been built around the personality of former RSS activist, Bhide “Guruji”, whose austere lifestyle has stuck an emotional chord with a section of young Hindus. Bhide is also known to be close to senior BJP leaders. Shivaprathisthan employs the iconography of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who remains a powerful political symbol in the state. Aided by the use of social media, this has increased the ranks of “Dharkaris” (as Shivaprathisthan members are called).

The Congress and NCP leaders allege that while Left and Dalit activists were arrested for their alleged role in the Elgar Parishad case, Bhide has been treated leniently. They also complain that the Sena is toeing the line of the BJP on issues such as the Elgar Parishad and Bhima-koregaon cases.

Though the Sena was born in 1966 as a nativist, sons of soil party, which claimed to espouse the cause of the Maharashtrians in Mumbai, it took a formal turn towards Hindutva in the 1980s. Like most of its political positions, this was born more out of political expediency than any ideological conviction. Hindutva enabled the Sena to forge an alliance with the BJP in 1989. The late Bal Thackeray, the founder and supreme leader of the Sena till his death in 2012, even became the face of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in Maharashtra, edging out the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. The Sena, with its wide social base and militant cadre, also espoused the cause of Hindutva more virulently than the BJP.

Sena leaders admit a stung BJP may mobilise fringe groups to rake up causes linked to Hindutva to trap the Sena. This may include opposition to the veneration of the tomb of Adilshahi general, Afzal Khan, who was killed by Shivaji Maharaj in the Battle of Pratapgad, cow protection and beef vigilantism.

If the Sena is seen as opposing these, it risks alienating the Hindutva vote; if it consistently supports these, the patience of its allies may run out. There also remains an ideological bond with the BJP, which the Sena does not want to cut off entirely because of the fragility of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. The Sena also has to contend with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) led by Uddhav’s estranged cousin, Raj Thackeray, which has turned to Hindutva politics.

This explains why despite its alliance with the “secular” Congress and NCP, the Sena is having a tough time reconciling the compulsions of the present with its Hindutva past. Issues such as action against Bhide, or the controversial Sanatan Sanstha, will be part of the minefield that the Sena will have to negotiate. The future of the government, the party, and indeed, Maharashtra’s politics, will depend on the dexterity with which it pulls off this balancing act.

Dhaval Kulkarni is a journalist and author of ‘The Cousins Thackeray: Uddhav, Raj and

the Shadow of their Senas’ The views expressed are personal