Feb 1, 1999

The BJP and Shiv Sena may have negotiated an uneasy truce to save the cricket series but the already-troubled saffron alliance seems headed for divorce.

By Sheela Raval

Even for a business meeting, the menu was exceptionally light: just mushroom soup. The gathering in a private suite at Mumbai's Centaur Hotel had more than enough on its plate though: a full-scale crisis. When Home Minister L.K. Advani and Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan flew to Mumbai on the morning of January 21 to sort out things with Bal Thackeray, they had more or less decided to dispense with niceties.

At the meeting, the Shiv Sena chief was told that unless he called off his campaign to destroy the upcoming India-Pakistan cricket series, not only was the BJP's alliance with his party over, the Maharashtra Government too would be dismissed. Thackeray, realising discretion was the better part of valour, capitulated. He quietly announced that he was "postponing" his anti-Pakistan campaign for a year and would cause no immediate problems.

The Sainiks really forced the Central Government's hand on January 18 with their vandalism at the office of the Board of Control for Cricket in India at the Brabourne Stadium. Ironically, Advani was then in Mumbai on an official visit. He told Chief Minister Manohar Joshi that things were going out of control. When Thackeray dispatched 1,000 Sainiks from Mumbai to Chennai to disrupt the first Test, it was simply too provocative an action. The Tiger had to be caged. That it took two Union ministers to tame Thackeray speaks volumes for his nuisance value. As V.P. Singh, former prime minister, smirked, "It shows where the authority rests."

For the Maharashtra unit of the BJP, particularly Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde -- who also holds the home portfolio -- the cricket business has been the last straw. As one BJP MLA put it, "Enough is enough. We can't keep dancing to the Sena's tune." Informally, the BJP has told its workers to prepare to fight alone in the coming elections. The polls are due in March 2000 but the BJP-Sena partnership may last no longer than the end of 1999.

Trouble has been brewing for some time. The Sainiks feel the BJP takes them for granted. The BJP thinks the Sena has an exaggerated sense of self-importance. One minister even accuses the Sena of a "negative approach" and of thwarting BJP's proposals in the Government. Matters came to a head when Munde ordered a CID crackdown on Sahara India's hill resort project, a land scandal that is seen to have the Sena's blessings.

In the past year, irresponsible governance or plain rowdyism has often embarrassed the BJP and frayed its links with the Sena.

• In April 1998, Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali's concert in Mumbai was cancelled due to the Sena's muscle-flexing.
• In August 1998, there was a public feud between key BJP leaders, including Munde and Housing Minister Sureshdada Jain of the Shiv Sena. The BJP had boycotted a cabinet meeting and sworn not to return till Jain's new housing scheme was redrafted. The BJP was critical of the Rs 10,000 crore Shivshahi Punarvasan Prakalp Corporation, set up to build two lakh low-cost houses. At the time, Munde had written a letter listing his party's complaints in the three and a half years the coalition had existed.
• In October 1998, Thackeray used his annual Dussehra rally to announce a free electricity scheme that would waive power tariffs for 24 lakh farmers in Maharashtra. Such unbridled populism -- plus the fact that they were given no previous intimation of the promise -- took the BJP ministers by surprise. Since he is also energy minister, Munde realised that the scheme was impractical and financially suicidal.
• In December 1998 came the Sena's campaign against Fire, a film with lesbianism as its theme. Cinema halls screening the film were attacked. Once again the BJP drew flak for Thackeray's menacing tactics.
• In January 1999, Thackeray told Joshi to hike the cotton procurement prices. Even pre-hike, the Maharashtra Government buys cotton at Rs 2,100 a quintal, while the rate in other states is Rs 1,600 odd a quintal.

At this rate, the state Government will anyway lose Rs Rs 1,300 crore in 1998-99. With the Sena overlord's largesse, the loss may double, say senior bureaucrats.

It would seem the Sena is gripped by some sort of a death wish. The series-related violence has had even hardcore Sena supporters -- who happen to be cricket enthusiasts -- uncomfortable. For the BJP, it is becoming clear that the alliance with the Sena is now unsustainable. A divorce is inevitable; and there may be only acrimony for alimony.

--with Harish Gupta

© Living Media India Ltd