Thread: One public peeve of the rebel #ShivSena legislators led by #EknathShinde is that it diluted it's commitment to Hindutva by allying with “secular” parties like Congress & NCP. However, the Sena has always allied with parties across the ideological divide #UddhavThackeray
The #ShivSena's tiger has changed its stripes almost incessantly since its birth in 1966. Its positions have been dictated more by political expediency and opportunism than any ideological commitment.
It began by breaking bread with parties like the Praja Socialist Party (PSP), the Republican Party of India (RPI) and the Congress. It also had a brief dalliance with the Muslim League.
The only constant in its political journey has been its opposition to the Communists, which was obvious considering its attempts at breaking their dominance over the working-class movements. The Shiv Sena had also unsuccessfully tried to ally with the NCP for the 2009 LS polls.
Over the years, the #ShivSena has entered into expedient alliances, broken bread with parties across the ideological divide. Its political somersaults can put the most seasoned trapeze artist to shame
In the #ShivSena's first public meeting in October 1966 at Shivaji Park one of the four people on stage apart from founder Bal Thackeray, was his father and social reformer ‘Prabodhankar’ Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, Balwant Mantri and the Congress leader Ramrao Adik.
Ramrao Adik had floated an organisation named ‘Maharashtra Hitavardhini’ which had a similar pro-Marathi agenda like the #ShivSena.
In the 1967 Lok Sabha polls, it supported the civil servant-turned politician S.G Barve against former defence minister V.K Krishna Menon. Barve was the nominee of S.K Patil, the Mumbai Congress boss, who was against Mumbai being part of Maharashtra.
In 1968, the Shiv Sena fought its first election to the BMC in an alliance with the Praja Socialist Party (PSP).
The Sena was also charged with breaking the hold of the Communists on the movements of the working-class, especially the textile mill workers. It was derided by its opponents like ‘Acharya’ Pralhad Keshav Atre as ‘Vasant Sena’ (army of Vasantrao Naik, the then Maharashtra CM)
In the 1972 BMC polls, the Shiv Sena allied with the RPI faction led by R.S Gavai. The RPI has a base in the Buddhist Dalits.
Later, the Shiv Sena clashed with them on issues like its opposition to renaming the Marathwada university after Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and the state govt publishing Ambedkar’s ‘Riddles in Hinduism.’
Decades later, some leaders of the group like Namdeo Dhasal and Arjun Dangle allied with the Sena. It must be noted that the only social force that has stood up to the Shiv Sena and countered them blow for blow are the Dalits.
In 1972, the Shiv Sena installed its Sudhir Joshi as the mayor of Mumbai in 1972 with aid from the Muslim League. The Sena also had a brief dalliance with the League. Thackeray and Muslim League president G.M Banatwala addressed a rally at Mastan Talao in Nagpada, Mumbai
The Shiv Sena also joined hands with various factions of the Congress in the elections for the mayor of Mumbai. Thackeray also supported then Premier Indira Gandhi when she declared a state of Emergency in 1975. The Congress-Shiv Sena alliance was trounced by the Janata Party.
In 1980, Thackeray, who was in an alliance with the Congress, supported his friend and CM Abdul Rehman Antulay in his election from Shrivardhan in Raigad. The Shiv Sena was rewarded with three seats in the legislative council.
The Shiv Sena- Congress relationship fell apart in the mid-1980s only after the deadlock over the textile mill workers strike in Mumbai. Then, Thackeray shared the dais for his Dussehra rally (1984) with Sharad Pawar, who then had his own Congress (S) and George Fernandes.
That year, Thackeray, who was said to be experimenting with the idea of ‘scientific socialism’ got Shripad Amrut Dange, the doyen of Indian communism to address his cadre at a party convention in Dadar.
Dange put his finger on the Shiv Sena's weak-point--it has no theory or ideology, and it is difficult for a political party to survive sans one.
Today's #ShivSena was shaped by this decade of the 1980s. After severing ties with the Congress, the Sena allied with the BJP in 1984. However, this alliance lost to the Congress in the sympathy wave after Indira Gandhi's assassination, and fell apart.
Responding to the growing majoritarian assertion, the Sena contested and won the 1987 by-poll to the Vile Parle assembly seat with Thackeray controversially using the plank of Hindutva to mobilise voters.
It was a watershed in its politics and marked the formal shift to political Hindutva. This led to the BJP tying up with the Shiv Sena on this plank.
The Shiv Sena also attempted an alliance with the NCP for the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, but the plan fell through due to the obvious internal contradictions.
Now, with the #MVA experiment having frayed and with a vertical split in the ranks, the #ShivSena stands at the crossroads. Its future course will depend on whether it can strike stronger social and political alliances to recover lost ground.
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