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Thackeray really had no choice

Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Bombay

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray found his back to the wall and quickly acceded to a political compromise on the issue of the Pakistani cricket tour, according to observers.

The first and paramount factor here was the need of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena for each other's support in Maharashtra. An excessively strong challenge would also have had an adverse affect on the central government, already living on a wafer-thin majority.

With that kind of stakes, the BJP was unlikely to accede to any demand on an issue that had drawn national attention. So Thackeray, who had gathered much mileage of similar issues during the last assembly election and the 1996 general election, had to back off.

In last year's parliamentary election, Thackeray had tried a softer variety of Hindutva, hoping the Muslims would be happy with his repeated calls for building a national monument at the site where the Babri Masjid stood in Ayodhya until 1992.

His assurances didn't bring in the votes. In fact, the Muslims and dalits voted en bloc for the Congress-Samajwadi Party-Republican Party of India combine, shattering the hopes of the BJP-Sena alliance.

Thereafter, Thackeray returned to an extreme right-wing position, claiming after the election that the Muslims had ditched him.

After that, when Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani said the demolition of the Babri Masjid was a big setback to his party, Thackeray was quick to respond in his party's mouthpiece Saamna. "Are you the same Advani I knew?" he wrote, seeking to know why the man who brought a Hindutva movement to the country had gone back on his words.

Thackeray was also upset that the Prudential World Cup was damaged in the Shiv Sena's attack on the head office of the Board of Control for Cricket in India in Bombay on Monday. He himself is an ardent cricket fan and realised that the act could cost him public support.

The next reversal came soon thereafter, when the BCCI decided to shift base to Calcutta. International Cricket Council president Jagmohan Dalmiya said that when the people of a particular city "don't want us in their city, there is no point continuing in that place".

That got Thackeray. He knew this could deeply hurt Maharashtrian pride since they associate themselves with cricket and have always played a decisive role in shaping Indian cricket. And this was happening at a time when Chief Minister Manohar Joshi was BCCI vice-president and president of the Bombay Cricket Association.

The general perception was that the Sena, despite its claims of innocence, had indulged in a reprehensible attack.

In fact, soon after Advani and Thackeray agreed to sign a joint statement to amicably settle the matter, Thackeray claimed to be a "genuine cricket lover who cannot oppose any cricket match". He said he was just worried about the activities of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.

Thackeray was helped along by the fact that the other parties in alliance with the BJP at the Centre, like Mamata Banerjee's Trinamul Congress, had declared that the India-Pakistan series must take place come what may.

Banerjee, who had split with the Congress and formed the Trinamul Congress just before last year's general election, issued a similar statement as the Congress demanding that the matches take place immaterial of the Sena's stance.

The BJP had no intention of getting its own central government destabilised to satisfy the whims of a state partner. It was worried

What also worried the BJP was the fact that the Sena politician was openly defying the Centre and issuing statements against the Pakistani team, putting the central government in an embarrassing position.

"Therefore Advaniji had to come all the way from Delhi to persuade Balasaheb," a Sena politician said.

And so it came to pass that after the meeting Thackeray said he had no intention to allow the Congress to take advantage of any difference of opinion between the Sena and the BJP. He also said he had decided to suspend the protest against Pakistan's series of matches for the year.

A deal has been struck. But only time will tell how long the quiet will last.

RELATED REPORTS:

1. Thackeray backs down, withdraws threat to disrupt series
   
2. Centre decides not to take any chances
   
3. Indian team lands in Calcutta amidst tight security
   
4. The Pakistanis arrive in New Delhi
   
5. Madras police detain Shiv Sena men
   
6. 14 remanded to custody for attack on BCCI
   
7. Arrests upset Shiv Sena
   
8. No one has ever harmed Indian players: Thackeray
   
9. Slap President's rule on Maharashtra, says Mamata
   
10. Bengal government issues red alert for Eden Gardens Test
    

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