The son of the son of the father

Please sit hererdquo said the young politician indicating a threeseater sofa ldquoYou will be more comfortablerdquoldquoI am fine hererdquo I demurred The sofa faced the cold blast coming from the airconditionerldquoOr try this siderdquo he said pointing to another sofaldquoHonestly Irsquom fine hererdquo I said as politely as possibleldquoBetter to move Gopijirdquo he said softening his voice ldquoThatrsquos my fatherrsquos chairrdquoHis father was the 19th Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray judged Indiarsquos most popular chief minister in a survey of 17500 people from 13 Indian states The fatherrsquos father was Balasaheb Thackeray the controversial influential founder of the Shiv Sena in 1966 I was in the room with his grandson 35yearold Aaditya Uddhav Thackeray In December 2019 aged 29 he became the youngestever cabinet minister in Maharashtrarsquos history holding the portfolio of environment tourism and protocolSuch a long journeyIn 1969 when my parents moved to Bombay the Shiv Sena recently formed was campaigning against South Indians whom Bal Thackeray casually called yendugendu wallahs For four chilling days in February 1969 everyone stayed indoors the streets were desertedTwo generations later the grandson is in the lights and there is speculation and rumour questions and opinionsLetrsquos talk about Bombai Click the QR code above to join my WhatsApp group to share your Bombai stories for my bookmdashand perhaps answer some of my Bombai questionsOne lot is openly admiring He listens he understands he works with facts Hersquos approachable Hersquos the future They talk about his two years as a minister his Climate Action Plan and the complete makeover of BMC schools among othersAnother lot says Sorry agree to disagree Hersquos entitled like the rest of his generation Hersquos a party animal He has a dark sideThey will tell you about his 2010 protest against Rohinton Mistryrsquos novel Such A Long Journey which had upset many Maharashtrians with its remarks about the martyrs of the state The novel was swiftly withdrawn from the required reading list His critics said Aaditya had made his political debut with an act of censorship a precedent for confrontation rather than dialogueFifteen years after that protest I was finally granted a couple of hours with Mumbairsquos youngest millennial politician for a glimpse of who he is todayThe smile is wide and unguarded and therersquos a boyishness under an unruly crown of black hair His plain blackframed glasses give him a bookish air and a certain intentness but there is a contagious energy under the studious exterior Here are three things that stuck out from our conversationThree months before his tenure ended in June 2022 he gave the city its first Climate Action Plan charting a 30year path to netzero emissions by 2050 by when Mumbai would also be battling extreme floods extreme heat landslides air pollution and coastal threats Rich in data insights and actionable plans it has become the touchstone of Mumbairsquos policy and city planningHe showcased a nextlevel education makeover for children by rebranding municipal schools as Mumbai Public Schools MPS and affiliating them with international curricula such as CBSE and ICSE Around the end of his ministership 11 civic schools had made the transition and he was in talks with the International Baccalaureate board in SwitzerlandAs of this writing 18 of Mumbairsquos 21 MPSs offer the CBSE curriculum and one school each offers the ICSE IGCSE and IB curriculum CBSE schools offer 1122 seats for admissions and newer IGCSE and IB schools offer 28 seats per school The only ICSE school has 68 seats availableIn a city that recently saw a migrant worker thrashed because he did not know Marathi Aaditya seems to envision a more diverse global child His MPSs offered Marathi Hindi Gujarati Urdu and English and three optional South Indian languages Tamil Telugu and KannadaA senior functionary of the Shiv Sena who has been a member almost since its formation thinks Aaditya is the new inevitable face of politicsldquoMy generation followed Balasahebrsquos tenetsrdquo he said ldquoIf we didnrsquot like Valentinersquos Day wersquod go after college kids and say lsquoDonrsquot do this itrsquos not our culturersquo But this would not be acceptable to Aadityajirsquos generationrdquoPankaj Joshi architect and longtime environmental activist after working closely with Aaditya on several civic projects says ldquoHersquos passionate ambitious and tuned to environmental issues Hersquos learnt from his father He brought environmental education to municipal schools My daughter has never asked to burst crackers because she knows the pollution impact Thatrsquos the kind of curriculum change we needrdquoPoliticians evolve If you live in a hornetrsquos nest you must understand honey but also know how to sting and Aaditya may one day show up hidden behind a mask But for now our conversation felt like a waft of fresh air and energy in a jaded world Mumbai needs someone who cares about whatrsquos best for the city rather than how much more it can be squeezed for personal profitldquoWho does Mumbai belong tordquo I asked him ldquoThere are nearly 50 different communities and professions here some prominent some not from the Kolis to the Parsis to the GujaratisrdquoHe didnrsquot think too long ldquoIt belongs to Maharashtra But everyone who has made the city what it is they are a MumbaikarsrdquoPerhaps this is where the grandson is in lockstep with his grandfatherYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper