When the Shiv Sena and BJP alliance was voted to power in Maharashtra for the first time in 1995, they exhibited their Marathi asmita [pride for sons of the soil] by
insisting on renaming Bombay to Mumbai.
The state unit of the Sena and the BJP left no stone unturned to declare that they were the real custodians of Amchi Mumbai. Yet in the 2004 assembly elections, the Sena-BJP alliance was routed. They failed to cash in on the dividends from the Marathi manoos.
To everybody’s surprise, the Congress and the NCP returned to the power on the development plank. They overpowered their rival’s emotive issues with clever electoral strategy.
In 2008, the Shiv Sena, under the leadership of the executive president Uddhav Thackeray, is once again reverting to its old tactics. How else does one explain the Sena’s abrupt decision to get into the name game? The Shiv Sena (MP) Sanjay Raut admits, “The sons of the soil know the Sena’s commitment to cause of the Marathis. Yet the agitation is necessary, because some stubborn institutions and individuals are still not willing to reconcile to the change of Bombay to Mumbai.”
Every political party knows that the politics of renaming is not going to give them extra mileage. It may have worked in the past, but it’s a different scenario today. Yet the Sena has been forced to revisit the issue fearing the MNS was going to hijack their agenda.
On its part, the MNS appears determined to hammer the old issue with a single mission to win over the Sena voters and bring them to its fold. It’s a battle for a 40 per cent Marathi vote bank, which can make or break the political fate of any organisation.
Not surprisingly, even the Congress and the NCP, while ridiculing the Sena and the MNS on the Mumbai plank, are silently devising a strategy to woo the same sons of the soil. Deputy chief minister RR Patil (NCP) minced no words when he said, “I think there is nothing wrong in the use of Mumbai instead of Bombay once we have passed a law.”
The revenue minister Narayan Rane never makes the mistake of calling the city Bombay. However, to settle the core with Uddhav and Raj, he chides, “Were they blind? Did they not read the board Bombay Scottish when they admitted their children to the school?”
Ahead of the election year, the politics of renaming is going to get uglier as all major parties will try to overtake the other by raking up such issues. After all, politics is about rhetoric, it’s about matters of the heart, not the mind.
