Mumbaiya Politics!

The first anniversary of the Mumbai carnage is being observed with much reportage in the Indian media, something not very unusual. What is also entering the limelight; however, are the raging voices of the public. Be it Kavita Karkare, wife of slain ATS chief Hemant Karkare, questioning her husband’s missing bullet proof jacket, or the general public questioning safety norms in the city; the wounds of the attacks have still not healed in their minds.
Amid these key developments in the city over the past few months, where have the political parties of Mumbai been all this while? Both the ‘Sena’s seem to be engaged in vandalizing press offices, attacking non – Marathi speaking MPs and warning Sachin not to enter the political pitch. Citizens of this ‘Maximum City’ have always lashed out against the authoritarian antics indulged in by Shiv Sena and MNS in the name of politics. Following 26/11, Shiv Sena made news recently when its party members attacked Leopold cafe, protesting against mugs that the café has created to commemorate the first anniversary of the terror attacks. Apparently upset with the cafe ‘commercializing’ the incident by selling these beer-filled mugs to their customers, Shiv Sena resorted to their trademark strategy – violence. Party leaders were nowhere to be heard of since the attacks, nor have many reports been filed on any comment from the Sena camps.
Following its defeat in the recent Maharashtra assembly elections, Shiv Sena is in a tug-of-war with the MNS, both parties looking to grab opportunities to overtake the other. "The Sena took the risk of attacking a popular Maharashtrian icon to seize the initiative from MNS which has been taking aggressive postures. It's a war of one-upmanship,'' a senior Congress leader observed. On the other hand, when the MNS attacked Abu Azmi, the Sena retaliated when Azmi criticized Bal Thackeray. The article, 'Shiv Sena, MNS in one-upmanship war' also mentions, “The MNS's hard line on issues, aimed at projecting its image as the only party that takes up the Marathi issue, leaves Sena stalwarts fuming. For example, when Raj Thackeray spoke in Marathi to several Hindi- and English-language national TV channels, MNS scored a point over the Sena.”
Similarly, when the MNS directed the State Bank of India to consider Maharashtrians for their job vacancies, Shiv Sena jumped at the opportunity. Sthaniya Lokadhikar Samiti, the Sena's wing that advocates public sector jobs for Maharashtrians, explained that it had worked for three decades to ensure adequate representation for "sons of the soil'' in recruitment for the public sector.
The MNS has always been targeting celebrities such as Amitabh Bachchan on the Marathi manoos vs. outsider debate. The Sena could not lag behind, and the recent controversy on Sachin Tendulkar’s ‘Indian first’ remark is proof enough.