How Raj Thackeray’s ‘Marathi manoos’ pride has become a sticking point ahead of his Ayodhya visit

Raj Thackeray’s upcoming go to to Ayodhya on 5 June has been making information for all of the incorrect causes.

A Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) MP has brazenly declared that he gained’t enable the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief to enter the town until he tendered a public apology for humiliating north Indians.

Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the MP from Kaiserganj Lok Sabha constituency and one of many leaders of the Ram Mandir motion, mentioned, “Is not going to enable Raj Thackeray, who humiliates north Indians, enter the Ayodhya border.”

“Earlier than coming to Ayodhya, Raj Thackeray ought to apologise to all North Indians with folded fingers,” he mentioned.

Because the controversy grows over the Thackeray’s go to to the temple metropolis and his try of changing into a brand new saffron icon, we check out the genesis of the difficulty and why the BJP MP appears adamant on being a roadblock.

Additionally learn: Raj Thackeray: Why the ‘indignant man of Maharashtra’ is so lively once more

Anti-migrant stance

When Raj Thackeray shaped the MNS again in 2006, his purpose was to show himself as his uncle Bal Thackeray’s actual political inheritor. When the event plant didn’t work, Thackeray adopted the ‘Marathi manoos’ agenda and took a tough standpoint in opposition to migrants, particularly these from the North — Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

In 2008, Raj went on a tirade in opposition to those that moved from Uttar Pradesh to Maharashtra and even went after Amitabh Bachchan. In a lot of his early 2008 rallies, he asserted that the famous person was “extra ” in his dwelling state of Uttar Pradesh quite than Maharashtra.

In one other celebration perform, Thackeray was quoted as saying, “Although he (Amitabh) has turn out to be a star in Mumbai, his curiosity is in Uttar Pradesh. That’s the reason he was attempting to be an envoy of UP quite than Maharashtra. That’s the reason although he achieved every thing in Mumbai, when it got here to elections, Amitabh selected Uttar Pradesh.”

In February 2008, MNS employees clashed with the Samajwadi Occasion in Mumbai’s Dadar, assaulted taxi drivers from north India, and vandalised their automobiles. Thackeray justified the assaults saying it was a response to the uncontrolled ‘dadagiri’ of migrants and leaders from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

In October of the identical 12 months, his celebration employees beat up North Indian candidates showing for the all-India Railway Recruitment Board entrance examination. This led to an outrage from Bihar’s distinguished leaders — Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar. Whereas Lalu known as Raj Thackeray as a “psychological case, the latter had spoken to then Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, urging him to supply safety to the migrants from Bihar.

Thackeray was then arrested in Ratnagiri, an arrest that ignited violence by his supporters. Irate supporters went on the rampage torching public transport and telling workplace goers to return dwelling.

Via the years, regardless of his political losses, he saved up his anti-migrant posturing. In 2012, attributed the rising crime charge in Mumbai to the migrants, primarily north Indians.

He additionally attributed the excessive incidence of coronavirus circumstances within the state to migrant employees.

Maharashtra is probably the most industrialised state in India which attracts numerous employees from different states. The locations from the place these employees come lacked sufficient testing amenities. Throughout the lockdown final 12 months, I had instructed that migrant employees who returned to their native locations ought to be examined, but it surely was not performed,” the MNS chief was quoted as saying.

‘Received’t enable him in Ayodhya’

Raj Thackeray’s reinvention as the brand new Hindutva icon — in gentle of the Hanuman Chalisa row raging in Maharashtra — has hit a roadblock after his go to to Ayodhya has hit a snag.

On 17 April, Raj Thackeray at Pune had introduced that he would go to Ayodhya on 5 June to hunt blessings of Lord Ram.

“On 5 June, I’ll go to Ayodhya together with different MNS employees to have darshan of Lord Ram. I attraction to different individuals additionally to return to Ayodhya,” Thackeray had mentioned in a press convention.

Nonetheless, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the six-time MP from Kaiserganj has vociferously opposed Thackeray’s go to, demanding an apology for his violent marketing campaign in opposition to north Indian migrants in 2008. He mentioned he wouldn’t enable the MNS chief to enter Ayodhya on 5 June even when he apologises.

On 9 Could, he additionally known as for a gathering of high saints and head monks (Mahants) of all temples in Ayodhya on Tuesday to plan a method to cease the MNS chief from coming into the town, the Hindustan Instances reported.

Singh additionally requested Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to not meet Thackeray until he apologised to the North Indians.

BJP in a conundrum

Singh’s opposition to Raj Thackeray’s Ayodhya go to has turn out to be a sticking level for the BJP.

The resistance to Thackeray’s go to comes at a time when many political consultants have famous that the MNS has been cosying as much as the BJP, forward of the Mumbai civic physique elections.

As Kapil Patil, a analysis assistant with the Division of Civics and Politics, College of Mumbai, famous in a PTI report that Raj Thackeray just lately had conferences with BJP leaders — state unit chief Chandrakant Patil, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, former Maharashtra minister Ashish Shelar and Union minister Nitin Gadkari.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi authorities in Maharashtra, an alliance of the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Occasion and the Congress, has slammed the MNS for working in tandem with the BJP. Whereas the BJP has rejected the suggestion, the celebration has been supporting Thackeray’s trigger in Maharashtra.

With inputs from companies

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