Dharmendra Jore: Deal a desperate MNS needed

After striking a deal between Raj Thackeray and Film Producers' Guild Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has been branded as a 'middleman' by his political opponents who also allege that the CM has surrendered to Raj's nuisance value, instead of using law of the land to tame the agitation.

At the same time, Raj faces a charge of extorting money from Bollywood producers, as he has asked them to donate Rs 5 crore each to the Army Welfare Fund as expression of repentance for hiring Pakistani actors in their films, in exchange of clearing Karan Johar's 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' for a Diwali release.

Fadnavis and Raj have not reacted to allegations, but they have harped on a popular sentiment of nationalism that calls for banning Pakistani actors, technicians and singers from Indian films. They discussed the demand and arrived at a resolution knowing very well that other political parties, who did not openly demand a ban on Pakistani artists but respected a public opinion for enforcing such a ban.

Raj had nothing to lose. In the past, he had been accused of withdrawing agitations without taking them to a conclusion. Fadnavis chose to exploit the situation despite the fact that the method he adopted was prone to heavy criticism. The BJP remained content in meeting a demand that has been a flavour of nationalism wave, but achieved a bigger target by making the Shiv Sena uncomfortable in granting Raj a bulk of credit for a permanent ban on Pakistani artists.

Surprisingly, the Sena took a break this time in demanding action against Pakistanis, but it tried scoring some points over the MNS saying that it was the pioneer of anti-Pakistan agitation. Right from digging the Wankhede pitch many years ago, the Sena had continued public protests against Pakistani artists / players till last year when sainiks blackened the face of a Pakistani author's Mumbaikar host. The agitation did not go further because Fadnavis had deployed a strong police force to crackdown on sainiks. The two ruling partners were engaged in a verbal war then, which also found a mention in Sena president Uddhav Thackeray's Dussehra speech this year.

Uddhav doubted the BJP's ability to deal with Pakistan making a sarcastic remark on the police protection that was provided to Pakistani author and his host in Mumbai. He said the BJP should act tough against Pakistan in the light of Uri attacks and surgical strikes must continue till Pakistan turned into Hindustan.

Since the Sena has almost decided to part ways with the BJP in the civic polls, the CM needs someone like the MNS to cut into the Sena's share of votes. Fadnavis lifted the MNS a notch up because Raj has a history of earning at the cost of the Sena. Fadnavis is doing nothing extraordinary. He is just repeating the moves that were played by the then Congress CMs. Raj had struck a goldmine when situations were turned into his favour, especially in 2009, when he helped the Congress-NCP in winning all Mumbai Lok Sabha seats, and then went on winning 13 Assembly seats for himself. Then he won a good share for himself in the BMC, with a clean sweep in the Sena-dominated Dadar.

The MNS juggernaut stopped rolling in 2014. The Sena's estranged offspring has not yet recovered from the debacle. The 13-MLA party is reduced to a non-entity as its lone MLA in Junnar deserted it recently. It has 28 corporators in Mumbai, rules the Nasik civic corporation and was ousted in Kalyan-Dombivli last year.

It remains to be seen how Raj uses the advantage to his party's benefit or continues to play a pawn to the BJP, which seems to have hit a target as expected. A day after Raj's victory, Uddhav said in Goa that the Army had declined to accept donations from film producers because it did not want extortion money. "Dena hai to dil se do, jo bhi karna hai dilse karo (donate voluntarily but not by force)," he said.

Uddhav had no doubt in his mind that the entire episode that culminated into a deal at CM's residence was a scripted one. "I understand that the three (the CM, Raj and Johar) will be making a movie called 'Ye To Hona Hi Tha' (This was bound to happen)," he summed up, oozing sarcasm.

Dharmendra Jore is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @dharmendrajore Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com