Marathi films, cartoons, politics: Nitesh Rane's varied interests

Maharashtra Industries Minister, senior Congress leader and Konkan strongman Narayan Rane’s son Nitesh Rane was arrested by the Goa Police on Tuesday after he allegedly vandalised a toll booth and attacked its staffers. The incident took place on the Maharashtra-Goa border after a Goa-bound group led by Nitesh and travelling in a convoy of private cars refused to pay the fee at the toll plaza in Pernem village. Expectedly, Nitesh aides immediately said it was a political conspiracy and that the BJP-led Goa government was responsible. It’s not the first time Nitesh has run into trouble with the law. Just who is Nitesh Rane? [caption id=“attachment_126562” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Nitesh Rane[/caption] In February 2012, just before Mumbai went to polls to elect a new set of representatives to the country’s richest municipal corporation, Industries Minister Narayan Rane’s younger son Nitesh reportedly asked the party bosses for about 25 tickets – to field members of his Swabhimaan Sanghatana on Congress tickets. If Raj Thackeray was kingmaker, he would be mini-kingmaker, he announced. Three of his loyalists were eventually given tickets, all going on to perform poorly. That brashness is perhaps what describes Nitesh Narayan Rane best, a politician whose first big brush with controversy came in September 2010 when a Congress worker and then state president of the Swabhimaan Vahtuk Sangh or the Swabhimaan Sanghatana’s transport union survived a bullet that grazed his right cheek and then accused Nitesh of firing at him in his Khar office. The CBI would eventually investigate the case, give Nitesh a clean chit and then run into trouble with the CBI court ordering a re-investigation earlier this year. Ever since, Nitesh has remained on the fringes of the news cycle, popping in frequently. In recent times he declared that songstress Lata Mangeshkar must reconsider her decision to support Narendra Modi. Before that he was tweeting angrily about all-vegetarian housing societies keeping Maharashtrians out, asking Gujaratis and especially Narendra Modi supporters to return to Gujarat if they could not deal with meat-eating sons of the soil. There was also a memorable little spat with Sena scion Aditya Thackeray whose car reportedly brushed past his – though Nitesh would later deny this incident. Brother Nilesh, an MP from Sindhudurg, also had a brush with angry citizens following a public verbal duel with a woman traffic warden in Bandra earlier this year. There was briefly talk within Congress circles of a ticket to the Upper House of the Maharashtra legislature, the Vidhan Parishad, for Nitesh, met immediately by opposition from party members within. Nitesh was eventually not considered for the ticket – and denied that he was ever in the reckoning for a “backdoor” entry into the legislature. Nitesh has also entered the Marathi film industry in a big way, having produced, among others, Marathi multi-starrer Duniyadaari that broke several box office records earlier this year. The film, about the true meaning of life, ran to packed cinema halls in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Gujarat. Through support among cine-workers’ organisations and through cultural organisation Maharashtra Kalanidhi that he set up, Nitesh has also reached out to the producers, writers, directors and cinematographers and other technicians in Marathi cinema. He has also purchased the rights to the Marathi version of Bigg Boss. Nitesh, observers say, he has many of his father’s characteristics – the former Shiv Sena leader had built a very strong personal base of supporters even within the Shiv Sena, taking them with him when he broke away following disagreements with Bal Thackeray, the departure of a string of his supporters grievously injuring the Shiv Sena. Albeit on a much smaller scale, Nitesh has tried to build his own personal support base too – the Swabhimaan Sanghatana, stiffly opposed by many in the Congress as it is pretty much an indpendent political entity distinct from the Congress party. Members of Swabhimaan have routinely been accused of indulging in violence in response to any action against Nitesh or any other issue they believe deserves violent action in response. In May 2012, the Goregaon police arrested eight alleged members of Swabhimaan for attempting to vandalise a club where a seven-year-old boy had drowned. In the wee hours of Tuesday too, hours after Nitesh was arrested by the Goa police, there was some stone throwing in Borivali, said reports, believed to have been conducted by Swabhimaan men. Lampposts outside the Goa Bhavan were broken too, and though the police said they nabbed two men who were behind the act, there is no confirmation on whether the duo belongs to the Swabhimana Sanghatana, whose symbol, incidentally, is a fist. Press releases from the Swabhimaan Sanghatana always specify that the group is a “non-political” entity. “This organization is actively involved in working for the appropriate social injustice and various causes in Maharashtra. The motive of the organization is to develop a sense of Swabhimaan (self respect) in every citizen of Maharashtra,” the releases say about the organisation, indicating a mix of sons-of-the-soil agenda and interest in urban middle class issues such as the water mafia and transportation. The Sanghatana has achieved little in terms of electoral politics, but has stayed active, conducting successful job fairs, getting involved in the issue of the border dispute with Karnataka over Belgaum’s proposed integration into Maharashtra (Nitesh has supported the rights of the Marathi-speaking population of Belgaum), The go-back-to-your-state comments and the street-level politicking are not the only similarities with the Shiv Sena’s now-eroding style. Nitesh also runs a magazine, called Yuva, and, like Sena founder Bal Thackeray, is a budding cartoonist himself. Equally comfortable in Marathi and English, Nitesh has been candid in the past that he is in politics for the long haul and that he loves the rough and tumble of politicking, done the way his father has shown. But the urban Marathi-speaking population remains his target audience, a platform for the Marathi manoos that is unhappy with not having received much from the Shiv Sena and looking for options. A couple of years ago, after a long protest against an alleged water tanker mafia in Mumbai, one Swabhimaan member was killed, a lathi charge ensued and about a dozen cases slapped against Nitesh. Only yesterdaym NItesh tweeeted about that incident: “3rd Dec is the day when We all remember what Swabhiman did against the Water Mafia! We lost 1, lathi charged n 13 cases on me! Fight goes on.” Clearly, Tuesday’s Goa incident will not bother him too much.