January 4, 1999
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Heroes, Villains and Zeroes '98 Villains Known & Unknown Bullies. Blackmailers. Extortionists. Goons. You run out of synonyms but India doesn't run out of examples of villainy. Actually, we may be guilty of a misnomer. The word villain goes hand in hand with a certain dignity, with a classy exponent of evil. India's most infamous in 1998 were scarcely this type. They were crude practitioners of cowardice. There was the self-appointed moral policeman, the haughty political dominatrix who almost scuttled the Union government, the eviction agent who helped himself to everybody's property. There was also those most lowly of social animals: the adulteraters, those who mixed poison with cooking oil and counted their coins as families counted their dead. They're still with us. Sadly for India, its villains always will be. BAL THACKERAY The Sena chief continues to hog the limelight with notorious campaigns  Some people
love a drink, others love art and yet others a fight. Bal Thackeray loves notoriety,
especially if it involves himself. Smarting under an electoral rebuff and the waning
appeal of his we won't-allow-Pakistan-to-play-cricket platform, he found a new cause in
Deepa Mehta's Fire. Three weeks after the film began screening, he discovered the dreaded
L-word. Ever ready to oblige the Hindu Hridaysamrat, his storm troopers went on the
rampage in Mumbai and Delhi. Outraged liberals went to Supreme Court. Thackeray
retaliated, asking his Sainiks to strip down to their under wears in front of filmstar
Dilip Kumar's house. No one was amused. Not even the Government in which the Sena is a
partner. But that didn't bother Thackeray. A poseur, he shoots from the hip and loves it
when others rise to the provocation. It's a great pastime for him. But his storm-troopers
end up as the thought police to the tinpot Hitler-lover who, at the end of the day, is in
love with himself. Thackeray loves being described as Villain No.1. He was so last year
with the fuss over M.F. Husain's Saraswati. He is this year. One day people will ignore
him. That's when he will get his comeuppance.
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