Uddhav's tantrum on Ambedkar memorial: Sena played into BJP's hands

The preparation of a guest list is always the prerogative of the host. Those left out can wonder why they did not figure on it, but publicly fussing about it is unbecoming of the spurned. In the case of the event where Narendra Modi laid the cornerstone for an Ambedkar memorial, where Congress and the NCP were relatively muted, the Shiv Sena went ballistic. That was rather immature politics, especially because the Shiv Sena is part of the government, and therefore, the host. The Sena, which now complains of the insult, has actually betrayed its own status in the government; it can whine and whimper, scream and dance, but the BJP is in charge, and keeps the Sena in the dark, even on matters like the long-awaited memorial to Ambedkar. [caption id=“attachment_2465964” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Uddhav Thackeray. PTI[/caption] We are prone to take a black and white view of politics, ably aided by political analysts who refuse to see the swaths of grey, but there is an interesting dimension to the event in Dadar. The stage was rather swarming with Republican party leaders, each of whom has a faction of the original Republican Party of India. RPI is more or less a metaphor for a Dalit outfit. Each party has its identity noted in parenthesis. BJP managed to convey several things to the plethora of Republican party leaders, each miniscule to make any difference, but if banded into a force, could actually do or undo politics in Maharashtra. By providing them a stage, it probably implied, it is best for them to come together. By the same act, it also conveyed that despite Ramdas Athavale being a Rajya Sabha MP on BJP’s quota, it respected other factions as well. It is apparently hoping to see a Dalit consolidation under its aegis. Now Athavale has to realise that, though he is an MP and likely to have a nominee of his – probably his wife – into the Maharashtra ministry, he is not the cats’ whiskers that tops the various warring Republican groups, each affiliated to some. He does not have room to claim that the memorial is because of his striving. Other Dalit groups too had sought it, and it was a realisation of all, Dalit and non-Dalit. That puts Ramdas Athavale on a sort of notice. Now that a major desire for a huge memorial is being realised, there was hardly any room for the Dalit leaders to be fractious. By a categorical statement that quotas were not to be diluted, or divested of the caste criterion, the fears stoked by the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s demand for a review of reservations was doused. BJP is telling the Dalits that it is concerned. That tantrum part apart, which the BJP seems to have relished, the Sena has not yet explained why it had planned a farmers’ rally in Beed when the Prime Minister’s programme was near certain. It wasn’t as if the day was sprung on them, as if the Sena ministers were ignorant of the likely date, for they would have received their invitation as per protocol, of which Uddhav Thackeray is not a part. Complaining that he got the invitation at the last minute therefore could be a matter of unobserved courtesy, but the Sena chief should have complaints about it with his own party leaders who work in the government. Despite their public stances, the show of animus, the two parties actually meet in cabinet and its sub-committee sittings. It is as if the Sena wanted this brouhaha to happen. Sena actually played into the BJP hands, conferring full credit to it for a project, which has been in the air for quite some time, hanging fire as it were because of acquiring the Indu Mills land, and deciding on what shape the memorial should take. By screaming that a government event was turned into a BJP event, the opposition has strengthened the perception. Politics is all about perceptions.