2 yrs ago, he sang inclusive tune, what’s different now

Some senior MNS leaders think it is the former while others think it is a combination of both.

The party, the first set said, is reconstituting its internal committees and appointing new office-bearers and much of the trouble has been witnessed in districts where the process has not been completed and activists are jockeying for positions.

“While appointments on many panels have been finalised, some are pending Rajsaheb’s approval,” one MNS leader said. “Once that is done, the party will hold its first state-level conference within a month.”

The one-day conference is to be followed by a public meeting addressed by Raj and 15,000 delegates are expected to participate, he said, adding that this had motivated overzealous party activists to take to the streets, show their abilities at creating trouble and seek the attention of their leader.

The fact that MNS activists seemed to be putting up a show for TV channels as they indulged in brazen rioting was evidence enough, he said.

On Sunday, MNS activists stormed Madhukar theatre in Nashik, blackened posters and damaged the reels of Bhojpuri film Kab Le Aiyi Bahar, in full glare of TV cameras.

A similar incident took place at Pratap theatre, Thane, where MNS activists stopped the screening of Bhojpuri film Saiya Se Solah Singar while their counterparts in Mumbai attacked vendors and a taxidriver on camera.

In fact, on Monday, TV channels even seemed to know that MNS activists would beat up north Indians inside Mumbai’s local trains and attack fruit vendors and got close-up shots of the violence.

Raj tried to explain the violence calling it a reaction to the “dadagiri” of non-Maharashtrians.

“We have nothing against non-Maharashtrians coming to the state for their livelihood,” he said in Pune on Sunday. “But we would not tolerate their power shows in the name of Chaathpuja.”

All this does not absolve Raj of blame though, considering he had set out to form what he had said would be an inclusive organization but would fight for primacy for Maharashtra’s sons of the soil.

Less than two years ago, weeks after the MNS was formed, Raj had issued orders to organize a simple rally with a secular outlook for his first independent political show of strength. In the run-up to that rally in Shivaji Park, Muslims, Dalits and north Indians had visited Raj in a symbolic display of support.

Even during campaigning for the Mumbai municipal corporation elections last year, Raj and his MNS had campaigned on a platform of development and change and did not even as much as whisper against the city’s teeming north Indian population.

Raj appears to have changed tack and targeted north Indians and Bhojpuri films after his bete noire and cousin, Uddhav Thackeray, executive president of Shiv Sena, started wooing north Indians and the municipal corporation of Mumbai, ruled by the Sena, decided to offer sops for Bhojpuri films, MNS sources said.

“Our following among Marathi people is increasing as they are convinced that Raj is their saviour,” another MNS leader said, pointing out that the party conference would adopt several resolutions for the welfare of the “sons of the soil.”

On Monday though, Raj went incommunicado and was closeted in his Dadar residence while the state government ordered an inquiry into Sunday’s violence and Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said Raj would be arrested if evidence was found against him.

Assuring “stern action” to prevent the trouble from spreading, Deshmukh said the state government would protect north Indians and did not have discriminatory policies.

“There has been trouble and poor youths have been beaten up. We will act against the guilty,” he said, adding that 25 MNS workers in Mumbai and 50 in Thane had been arrested so far.

(With inputs from Dhaval Kulkarni)