RSS, BJP take on Shiva Sena – MNS Mumbai for Maharashtrians agenda

RSS, BJP condemn ‘divisive agenda’ of Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena

The disagreement within the Sangh Parivar over the anti-North Indian stand of the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has come out in the open.

Even as the Shiv Sena stressed that it will not pay heed to any advice from anyone on its agenda of ‘Mumbai only for Maharashtrians,’ the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have publicly criticised what it calls the “divisive” stance.

Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the RSS, has asked the members of the Sangh Parivar to “protect” North Indians in Maharashtra and also “ensure” that the North Indian community in Maharashtra is not harassed.

The BJP also described the ‘Mumbai only for Maharashtrians’ stand of the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena as “unconstitutional.”

Uddhav Thackeray, executive president of the Shiv Sena, reacted by warning the RSS to “mind its own business” and asserted that Mumbai belonged only to the Maharashtrians. He told reporters that “nobody has the right to speak about Mumbai other than Marathi manoos.”

On the remarks made by the RSS chief that Indians are free to live and work anywhere in India, Uddhav Thackeray said that the RSS “need not worry about Mumbai.”

However, Uddhav Thackeray refused to comment on the BJP’s stance that asking North Indians not to come to Maharashtra and settle there is “unconstitutional.”

We believe the sudden aggressiveness from the RSS and BJP about the Marathi Manoos issue is based on political compulsions. Bihar state elections are approaching, and the negativity of Sena and MNS about Bihari migrants is uncomfortable for their allies, the BJP.

Even the BJP waited a day bfore they were sure exactly what the RSS was talking about; before coming out with their own reaction putting themselves firmly in the Mumbai for all camp.

In this battle, it is unlikely that both sides would take any precipitate steps – after all, the BJP and Shiv Sena been allies for a long time, and a split is not beneficial for either in Maharashtra or in the Lok Sabha.

BJP president Nitin Gadkari, who hails from Maharashtra, has declared that the BJP is opposed to “politics based on regional identities.” It has been the consistent position of the BJP and of the Jan Sangh earlier that all Indians have the right to live anywhere in India, Gadkari said, adding that it was on the basis of this principle that the BJP opposes Article 370 of the Constitution.

According to Murli Manohar Joshi, senior leader of the BJP, Mumbai is not solely for Maharashtrians “whether the Shiv Sena likes it or not.” The stand that Mumbai belongs only to the Maharashtrians is totally unconstitutional, and this kind of attitude is the worst example of vote-bank politics, Joshi said.

Political observers say that the main motive behind the BJP’s strong opposition to the anti-North Indian stand of the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena is the elections to the Bihar Assembly to be held in 2010 and to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in 2012.

The BJP, according to observers, is trying to project itself as a national party ahead of the elections in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. They feel that the BJP’s open criticism of the stand of the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena also may have been prompted by the plans of the Congress to revive the party in both Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.