 "Politics of vada pav: Here's how Shiv Sena won the PR battle against Shobhaa De")
A debate over screening of Marathi films in theatres has now snowballed into a huge protest against Shobhaa De’s comment on Twitter about Mumbai’s favourite snack — the vada pav and misal. After the Maharashtra government announced that it would be compulsory for multiplexes in Mumbai to screen Marathi films in at least one auditorium during prime time between 6 pm to 9 pm, Shobhaa De had criticised the government’s move on several news channels. De had even taken to Twitter and poked fun at the government directive saying:
No more pop corn at multiplexes in Mumbai? Dahi misal and vada pav only. To go better with the Marathi movies at prime time .
— Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) April 7, 2015
However, that did not go down well at all. As the self-appointed guardian of everything Marathi, the Shiv Sena took it upon themselves to tell Shobhaa De that there should be no making fun of the working class people’s evening snack. [caption id=“attachment_2190837” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Shobhaa De in a file. AFP[/caption] While the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana said outrageous things like “Since you have termed the decision of the state government as dadagiri, let us tell you (Shobhaa)…Had Chhatrapati Shivaji, in his time, and Balasaheb Thackeray not done ‘dadagiri’, then your forefathers and her children would have been born in Pakistan and you would have been attending Page 3 parties in a burqa,” the saffron party’s protest at De’s house was much more calculated. Given that Shiv Sena’s style of protesting has been pretty violent so far, De was understandably worried when she found out that the party would protest at her place at 1 pm. She tweeted saying:
All of Mumbai knows what a Shiv Sena protest looks like — violent goons on bikes waving flags and chanting slogans. Often they have attacked media offices and vandalised toll booths when things did not go the way they wanted to. Once when a Pakistani band was set to perform in Mumbai, they brought a morcha to the Press Club demanding that the musicians return to their country. But this time, as it turns out, the Sena surprisingly decided to approach things in a peaceful manner. Much to the suprise of the worried Shobhaa De, there were no goons, but only peaceful party workers with a package of vada pav as a gift for her. Their peaceful protest assumes significance because while De had termed their demands as ‘dadagiri’, a civilised protest with a gift of vadapav was a complete PR win over the criticism directed at them by the columnist. And how could Shobhaa Aunty (yes, that’s how the Sena addressed her in their banners) be angry when she has been offered a big box of delicious Shiv Vada Pav and Dahi misal? In the Shobhaa De vs Shiv Sena politics of vada pav, Shiv Sena triumphed over De with their clever gift. While De was severely critical of the Sena over the past two days, she was actually forced to appreciate the gift brought for her. De tweeted out a photo of the package thanking the Sena.
And as there is another Shiv Sena protest is scheduled for 4 pm today, Shiv Sena’s dear Shobhaa Aunty was left dreaming about what other food they would bring her then:
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