Maharashtra crisis could push Uddhav, Fadnavis to become poster boys of Hindutva

Neither Fadnavis nor Thackeray practised aggressive Hindutva, but Maharashtra political crisis could change that for both

Eid Milan functions follow a formula. Priests of all faiths grace the stage; their followers sit in distinct groups in the audience. The speeches are about harmony; the hosts distribute sheer khurma, and the audience goes home feeling great about 'unity in diversity' surviving in their neighbourhood at least.

But this formula was set aside in a number of Eid Milan events in Mumbai this year. Instead of priests, politicians, especially Shiv Sena MLAs or corporators, graced the stage. People of different faiths were there, but this time, one group caught everyone's eye: Office-bearers of the local Sena shakha.

The reason for this change? Events in BJP-ruled states in the months preceding Ramzan Eid showed that times had changed. Muslims now needed guarantees of safety, a task beyond priests and NGOs. Who better to give these guarantees than elected representatives from the ruling party, more so, those from a party once known for its street violence and Muslim-bashing?

Maharashtra Crisis Live updates

What does one do now with those guarantees? The wolf is at the door; those who gave the guarantees seem no longer in a position to live up to them.

But is the wolf really at the door?

Maharashtra's Muslims do not remember Devendra Fadnavis with bitterness. His tenure as CM came as a pleasant surprise after the initial shock of the beef ban, a ban imposed in all BJP-ruled states. However, while lynchings by cow vigilantes became a regular feature in BJP-ruled Rajasthan, UP and Jharkhand, no lynching took place in Maharashtra. There was, of course, no getting away from the harassment of cattle traders during Bakri Eid by the VHP's "gau rakshaks", but this had been a regular feature even during the Congress-NCP reign.

Fadnavis came across as a different kind of RSS CM. Forget the many Eid Milans/iftars he attended (his wife even launched a Xmas charity event), Muslim activists remember a government they could approach: A finance minister who actually called them for budget inputs and some BJP MLAs who resolved seemingly impossible issues. The party also had an active minority cell. Ultimately though, when it came to votes, Fadnavis could not overshadow his party's hostility towards Muslims in the rest of the country.

Also Read | BJP awaits final outcome amid political fight within Shiv Sena

Will the same Fadnavis return as CM now, or will he be another Shivraj Singh Chouhan? The MP CM was no hardliner till he took over for the fourth time in 2020, much weakened and dependent on Congress defector Jyotiraditya Scindia. Fadnavis too will be dependent on a Shiv Sainik defector quite different from the mild Uddhav Thackeray, and one who has made Bal Thackeray's Hindutva the ostensible reason for breaking away from Thackeray's heir.

So, will the original Hindutva icon's brand of Hindutva make a comeback? Or, given the mood in the BJP, will Maharashtra go even further and join the bulldozer mainstream?

For the state's Muslims, Uddhav Thackeray's government had brought a sense of peace and security that even "secular" governments failed to do, tainted as those latter were by indiscriminate arrests of Muslims for terror acts and a record number of communal clashes (the highest in the country between 1998 and 2009). Not only did Thackeray take on the BJP's mischief-makers in a way the Congress-NCP never did, the state police, known to be Shiv Sainiks under their uniform, took their cue from the Shiv Sainik at the helm and, for the first time, earned the trust of Muslims. The CAA-NRC protests were the first major public protests after the MVA government took over; they remained largely peaceful because the police didn't try to crush them.

Also Read | Sena's count in Assembly dwindles, but Raut 'confident' of rebels supporting MVA in floor test

Will a new BJP government bring with it an end to this feeling of security and the peace that comes from it?

There's also the question of whether Uddhav Thackeray himself, as CM or not, will feel compelled to prove that he is Bal Thackeray's son, howsoever alien such a display might be to his nature. His cadre on the ground would have to follow his lead. Where will this leave Muslims? The NCP and Congress, despite being in government for an unbroken 15 years (1999-2014), have no record of coming to the aid of Muslims beleaguered by Hindutva mobs in Maharashtra; only Uddhav's government could have turned Raj Thackeray's recent campaign against masjid loudspeakers into a damp squib.

"These achhey din are too good to last." This fear among the secular-minded in Maharashtra may have come true, and with it, the oft-acknowledged but rarely-acted-upon realisation that governments are temporary; on the ground, there must not be even a pause in efforts to strengthen bonds between communities.

(Jyoti Punwani is a journalist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.