Bombayman's Diary

Lord Rama’s younger brother, Laxman, was an insomniac who didn’t sleep for fourteen years while he accompanied Rama and Seeta in the forest. While Laxman’s could be an extreme case of control over one’s sleep, we have a few politicians in our country who barely sleep. PM Modi sleeps just for four hours but there are a few politicians in Maharashtra as well who don’t like to be much in the dreamland. Generally, politicians appear formally before the media to maintain a certain impression, but there are a few occasions where they open up and let the journos glance through their real selves.    The festive season of Diwali also brings along a series of invitations for get-togethers and parties from politicians. While such events are purely off-camera and conversations here are deemed to be off-the-record, they help journalists in discovering different aspects of their host’s personality. Last Tuesday, I attended two such events–the lunch at Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis’ hom...

As a student of political science and as a journalist, I have been a keen observer of the Shiv Sena for the last three decades and have witnessed the highs and lows of the party. Uddhav Thackeray, the erstwhile CM of Maharashtra and a faction head of the party, is one of those faces around whom state politics revolves. As per the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda, every man and his actions have elements of good and bad in them. Referring to their philosophy, I have a mixed view of Uddhav’s personality. I like Uddhav’s survival instinct. He took over as the executive president of the Shiv Sena in 2004 and soon had to face a rebellion by stalwarts like Narayan Rane and Raj Thackeray. After the party’s poor performance in the 2009 Vidhan Sabha elections, questions were raised in the political corridors over the survival of the Shiv Sena. Raj Thackeray’s aggressive posture and his initial electoral success made everyone believe the MNS is the new Shiv Sena. However, Uddhav...

Shivaji Park, in the heart of Mumbai, is not just a mere public ground. Over the years, this piece of land has become a melting pot of politics, culture, sports and religion. It is the same ground where a young Sachin Tendulkar practised cricket to be nicknamed Master Blaster in later years. The staging of Ramleela attracted a good number of footfalls here every Navratri. It became a crematorium for celebrities when Bal Thackeray and Lata Mangeshkar were cremated here. Over the years, it has witnessed numerous political rallies and many national faces speaking from the dais constructed on the ground. However, for the Shiv Sena, Shivaji Park is particularly significant, and the party calls it Shivteerth , a place of pilgrimage. Suspense is prevailing in the political corridors of Maharashtra over who will address the crowd at Shivaji Park on 5 October, the day when Hindus celebrate Dashera. Uddhav Thackeray or Eknath Shinde? Both factions of the Shiv Sena have applied for the ground. F...

  Although, politically, it may sound inconsequential, I am shocked to know that Thapa has joined the rebel camp of the Shiv Sena led by CM Eknath Shinde. On Monday evening, he joined the Shinde faction at a public event in Thane. Those who have been observing the Shiv Sena over the decades, Thapa’s exit from Matosri seems unpalatable. Sampa Singh Thapa was not just the most loyal househelp of late party supremo Bal Thackeray, but was also treated as a family member of the Thackerays. For 27 years, Thapa was with Bal Thackeray in his thick and thin and took care of him in his last days. He worshipped Thackeray like God. People saw him grieving at Thackeray’s funeral at Shivaji Park in November 2012. Sampa Singh Thapa joined Bal Thackeray in 1985 as his househelp at the age of twenty years. He hails from Chimoli village near the Indo-Nepal border. Because of extreme poverty, Thapa left his home and crossed the border near Gorakhpur in February 1985 to hunt for some job in India....

Recently, Smitha Thackeray set the political circle of Maharashtra abuzz by appearing at Eknath Shinde’s Dashera rally on the BKC grounds. It has led to guesswork that she might begin the second inning in politics. This reminds me of an incident twenty-five years ago when she called the shots in the Shiv Sena. The year was 1997, and I was a tenderfoot in journalism. I studied at Wilson College in the first year B.A. By that time; I had decided to pursue my career in journalism and hence took a part-time job with Shiv Sena’s Hindi mouthpiece Dopahar Ka Saamana. Being appointed as the stringer of south Mumbai, I had to file local stories about crime, civic issues, politics, etc. My remuneration was per story basis. I regularly took the BEST bus, no.105 from Pydhonie to reach Wilson College at Chowpatty. Once while the bus was passing through the Grant Road area, I noticed that there was a huge traffic jam on the road. A brief look out of the window revealed that the jam was caused by a...

My Hide and Seek With Modi Although Rath or the chariot is a primitive mode of transport, it still plays a role in shaping 21st-century politics. Rath yatras have been a part of the BJP’s success story. The first rath yatra undertaken by L.K. Advani in 1990 launched the Ram Temple Movement and established the BJP as an organization pursuing Hindutva as its ideology. Advani’s rath yatra was followed by many others in the party at the central and state level. The rath yatra became a medium to mobilise party workers and create a buzz about the party’s policies and programmes. Recently, the party launched one such yatra preceding the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha elections. The nomenclature of this event, Gujarat Gaurav Yatra, reminds me of the one undertaken by PM Narendra Modi 20 years ago with the same name. Modi was the CM of Gujarat then and his yatra was launched in the aftermath of the Gujarat pogrom and before the Vidhan Sabha elections held that year. I had covered the inaugural of Modi’s ...