Junior Thackeray’s first foray in politics is more of the same

So Aditya Thackeray has launched his political career with a bang. Even he and Uddhav Thackeray must be surprised how smoothly it all went: someone pointed out that Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey had passages critical of the Shiv Sena; young Thackeray said it should not be in the curriculum; a spineless vice-chancellor (VC) swiftly and arbitrarily removed it from the syllabus.

That the Shiv Sena got its way should surprise no one: we have all got used to craven governments taking the line of least resistance when faced with the slightest hint of disruption. In this particular case though what is surprising is that the capitulation came so quickly: a mere suggestion from a mere student (although with a special surname) was enough to do the trick.

While despairing at this nadir in our public life, we should look at several questions this particular controversy raises. The first is of the declining standards in the higher echelons of our education system. The University of Bombay once occupied the top position in universities in India, but its steep descent from that pinnacle has to do with the quality of its vice-chancellors. Those of us who have met some recent VCs have been disappointed, to use a polite word, at their scholarship and their vision. As for Bombay University’s brand new VC, he does not even satisfy the technical requirements of the job. Is the selection procedure for vice chancellors on Kapil Sibal’s ambitious agenda for the reform of our educational system? It should be and it should be on the top of the list.

Another question concerns young Aditya Thackeray’s choice of where to study. We are by now used to the phenomenon of the children of language champions going to premier English medium schools and colleges. But why St Xavier’s, an institution known for its liberal traditions (as exemplified by the stirring comments of its Principal on the Rohinton Mistry controversy)? When you are lucky enough to get into the best of institutions, why not use the opportunity to broaden your mind to learn of the immense possibilities the world has to offer, to challenge yourself and get out of the well-oiled path that has been ordained for you?

As it happens, Aditya Thackeray does not seem to want to break free from the hackneyed ideas being fed to him. “If you bring the Rohinton Mistry book back”, he is supposed to have said, “Javier Moro’s The Red Sari should also be in the syllabus”. A moment’s reflection would tell him that this is not logical. The Moro book is a fictionalised work based on the life of Sonia Gandhi. Even in his native Italy, no one has made any claims for it to be considered a work of literature. The Mistry book on the other hand, is in the syllabus as a piece of contemporary literature. It is set in a Parsi milieu and the Sena, dabbawalas, make fleeting appearances in it as any book’s set in current day Mumbai might. It is not by any stretch of imagination a book on the Sena or any of its leaders. Given these two, wide divergences, how on earth can we equate the two books?

Instead of falling into the same old rut of agitational politics, Aditya Thackeray has a chance of thinking of a young Sena rather than just a Yuva Sena. For that he will have to imbibe something from the college he is privileged to be in, from its traditions, from his peer group in the campus, and from its liberal Principal. His starting point should be this: He is a third generation Thackeray and it’s now over 40 years from the time his grandfather launched the Sena. Has India itself not changed dramatically? It’s well established that the pace of change in the last century has outstripped all previous centuries together and that a developing country like India has skipped generations in technological advances. In such a scenario, why would our mindsets remain entrenched?

The Shiv Sena and the BJP are victims of their own early successes: the Sena’s agitational politics brought it into prominence in the early 1970s, while the BJP’s Rath Yatra/Babri Masjid brought it political dividends in the 1990s. But as the last two elections have shown and the reactions to the recent court verdict on Babri Masjid has confirmed, these issues have now become irrelevant, not just to the educated and economic elite but also to the rank and file which constitutes the bulk of the electorate. India has moved on and Indians’ needs and aspirations have changed completely from what they were half a century ago. Yet political parties like the BJP and the Shiv Sena behave as if nothing has changed at all!

If I were Aditya this is the reality I would confront. I would then urge Uddhav Thackeray to mould the Sena into a party that addresses the real needs of the people of Maharashtra in a meaningful way. It will be a slow process, and there might be no immediate political dividends, but the long term benefits to the party —  and more importantly, the people of the state — will be truly immense.

— The writer is a commentator on social affairs.