Shiv Sena: history and its violent activities

Known as a natural electoral and ideological partner of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for decades, the Shiv Sena has now seemingly pointed its guns towards the Modi administration in India as a few government high-ups have opened their lips against the move of Thackeray's loyalists to storm the offices of the country's Cricket Board just a couple of days back.
Well, that is how Shiv Sena operates and doesn't welcome any criticism.
It hates dissenting notes-as simple as that, and has been guilty of harassing Bollywood stars like Shahrukh Khan and country's top cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar.
Industrialists have to bow their heads, the courts have to be subservient to the commands coming from the Thackeray family, and all state machinery--at least within the state of Maharashtra-- has to be obedient. No defiance is tolerated!
You argue and you are banished from your presence forthwith.
The Shiv Sena (translated as Lord Shiva's Army) is a Hindu nationalist political organisation, which was founded by the late Balasaheb Thackeray in Mumbai on June 19, 1966.
Thackeray, who was initially a cartoonist with an English daily, had left the newspaper job in 1960 to start his own political weekly by the name of "Marmik."
Inspired by his father Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, a prominent figure in the United Mahrashtra Movement that demanded the creation of a separate linguistic state with Bombay as its capital, Bal Thackeray's cartoons had a strong anti-migrant undercurrent to them and primarily targeted Gujarati and south Indian migrants by vandalising the business establishments run by them.
Shiv Sena was initially supported by the Indian National Congress, which thought the new organisation would counter the formidable Communist trade union and help it strengthen its grip over labour politics in Mumbai.
Consequently, clashes resulted between the Shiv Sena and the Communist trade union and Balasaheb Thackeray's party was accused of a murder of a local politician in 1970. Courts were influenced and nothing happened.
And now, Shiv Sena had decided to target the Muslims of Bombay and adjoining cities.
The name of Bombay was changed to Mumbai during the rule of Shiv Sena's coalition government with BJP in Maharashtra.
In July 1999, Bal Thackeray was banned by the Indian Election Commission from voting and contesting elections for the next six years, from December 1999 to December 2005.
He was guilty of corrupt practices and for seeking votes in the name of religion.
In July 2005, former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Sena leader Narayan Rane was expelled from the party and in December 2005, Bal Thackeray's nephew Raj Thackeray had parted ways with his uncle to form his own political entity by the name of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
In his long public career, Thackeray was arrested just once - in 2007 - for a hate speech, and immediately granted bail (his previous arrest in 1969 was in a riot case).
Bal Thackeray had passed away due to cardiac arrest on November 17th 2012 in Mumbai, but not before handing over the affairs of Shiv Sena to his youngest son Uddhav Thackeray, whose son Aditya spearheads the Yuva Sena, the Shiv Sena Youth Wing.
Bal Thackeray was given a state funeral and his cremation took place on November 18, 2012.
Some two million people had attended his funeral ceremony, which was broadcast live on national TV channels.
Often dubbed a chauvinistic, fascist and extremist political party, Shiv Sena currently has 18 out of 545 seats in Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament), just three out of 245 in the Upper House of the Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and 63 out of 288 seats in the local Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra.
No Shiv Sena stalwart was elected during the 1971 and the 1980 Lok Sabha polls, only one had returned victorious in the 1989 ballot exercise, four had emerged triumphant in the 1991 elections, 15 won in the 1996 polling exercise, six were victors in 1998, another; 15 had bagged honours in 1999, 12 in 2004, 11 in 2009 and 18 in 2014.
But as far as Shiv Sena's prowess in the Maharashtra state assembly is concerned, it has been phenomenal between 1990 and 2014. This party had managed to win some 364 seats during these last 14 years in review.
As far as the chronology of Shiv Sena's fascism and brutality is concerned, the research shows that it was vehemently blamed for the 1970 communal violence in the Mumbai locality of Bhiwandi, the 1984 Bhiwandi riots and for its role in the 1992-93 Bombay violence.
During the May 1988 Aurangabad city violence, some 26 people had lost lives in clashes between Shiv Sena and Muslims, after Shiv Sena's leader Bal Thackeray had held a rally in the town to ensure victory for his organisation. The party was also involved in loot and arson.
During the October 1988 Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh) violence, a strike was called to counter the Babri Masjid Action Committee rally, but some Muslim shopkeepers had refused to put their shutters down. Violence flared up consequently and a Shiv Sena mob had vented its anger mainly on poor rickshaw-pullers. Overall, 87 people were killed-60 Muslims and 27 Hindus.
On February 24, 1989, after Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini had called upon Muslims to kill the blasphemous author Salman Rushdie, Muslims of Bombay had resorted to peaceful street protests, only to earn the wrath of Shiv Sena. A dozen people were killed in ensuing clashes.
In 1991, the Shiv Sena had dug up Bombay's Wankhede Stadium cricket pitch to protest against an India-Pakistan series.
(Reference: Noted Indian journalist Rajdeep Sardesai's very recent October 15, 2015 article in the Hindustan Times)
Rajdeep Sardeasi writes: "I wrote an article condemning the act in the strongest possible terms. A black flag demonstration was staged outside The Times of India office, where I worked in Mumbai, I was verbally abused, but fortunately allowed to leave the premises unhurt. As then Editor in Chief of the network, I sought strong police action. There were a few token arrests but eventually everyone was bailed out. The Shiv Sena hailed the 'boys' who had attacked the office. The matter was closed, life moved on. Till, of course, the next attack, the next victim."
He continues: "From 1966 till today, the Sena's history is littered with not just ink, but blood. Anyone who has chosen to voice their dissent has been sought to be silenced: threats, intimidation, ink attacks, assaults, riots, even murder (the Sena was accused of killing communist leader Krishnakant Desai in 1970), the Sena people have made violence their ultimate weapon. And yet, have got away each time."
Following the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the December 6-12, 1992 Bombay rioting had resulted as Shiv Sena's victory processions and celebration rallies had provoked Muslims.
In all, the media had reported 210 deaths in Bombay and 57 in other parts of Maharashtra. The actual death toll, however, probably amounted to more than 400.
The January 6-20, 1993 Bombay violence was triggered by inflammatory and provocative articles written by the Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray in the newspapers "Samna" and "Navaakal." His writings had inflamed communal passions. By now surveys had been conducted by Shiv Sainiks to identify Muslim houses, shops, rickshaws, and taxis. Voters' lists with Muslim names had also been made available to all the party offices for necessary "action."
Arson, loot, killing, stabbings, rape, destruction of religious places and police firing had been the order of the day during this period, as Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Sudhakarrao Nain, had lost control of the situation.
The gruesome and planned violence of this second phase had cost 557 lives and left over 1,000 people injured. Police sources stated that 458 persons had been killed, among them 288 Muslims and 170 Hindus. Some 133 deaths were caused by police firing (75 Muslims, 50 Hindus, and eight victims of unknown religious affiliation), 259 through mob violence (186 Muslims, 73 Hindus), and 66 in arson attacks (27 Muslims, 39 Hindus).
Independent analysts had claimed that the actual death toll probably rested between 600 and 1,500.
In all, the two phases of rioting in Bombay-in December 1992 and January 1993-claimed at least 900 lives (575 Muslims, 275 Hindus, 45 unknown and 5 others). Of these, 356 had died in police firing, 347 in stabbing incidents, 91 died in arson attacks, 80 through mob violence, and 22 in private shooting incidents. In other estimates, the violence was claimed to have taken more than 1,500 lives.
It is noteworthy that since the riots of December 1992, the atmosphere had remained tense in the city and attendance at Friday prayers in Bombay's mosques had increased. The Hindus were responding to this trend by organizing public displays of aggressive faith, which continued unabated from December 26, 1992 until February 1993.
Students of History would recall that between March 1993 and March 1995, in what could be termed a natural retaliation for the Bombay riots of December 1992 and January 1993, a series of bomb blasts had occurred in different areas of Bombay: at the Stock Exchange Building in the Fort area; the Air India Building at Nariman Point; the Century Bazar, the Hotel Sea Rock at Bandra; the Hotel Centaur at Juhu; and the Hotel Centaur at Santa Cruz Airport; killing 257 persons and injuring 713 others.
In December 2003, Shiv Sena activists had damaged the cricket pitch of the Agra Sport Stadium, which was supposed to host the cricket match between Pakistan and India.
In April 2005, the student wing of Shiv Sena had attempted to prevent the India-Pakistan match being held in New Delhi, asserting India should not play cricket with Pakistan till it handed over 20 terrorists, including Dawood Ibrahim, to India and closed down its militant training camps.
On November 20, 2009, Shiv Sena activists attacked and vandalised the offices of Mumbai's Hindi and Marathi news channels (IBN7 and IBN-Lokmat), besides manhandling their senior staffers. The channels were attacked for slating Bal Thackeray over his remarks against the great Indian Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar who had said that Mumbai was an Indian city and hence owned by all residents of the country.
(References: The Human Rights Watch World Report 1999, the Hindu, the Hindustan Times, Rediff.com, the Statesman, NDTV, ZEE News, the CNN, the Wall Street Journal, the Times of India, AFP, Reuters, the Associated Press, the BBC, the Washington Post, the Times of India, the Indian Express, the Colombo-based Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, Sikata Banerjee's book "Masculine Hinduism, violence and the Shiv Sena: The Bombay Riots of 1993," MF Katzenstein's book "Ethnicity and equality: The Shiv Sena Party and preferential policies in Bombay" and J.M. Eckert's book "The charisma of direct action: Power, politics, and the Shiv Sena)
This is what the "Washington Post" had opined about Shiv Sena in its Nov 19, 2012 edition: "Over the years, Shiv Sena became notorious as one of the most xenophobic right-wing groups in India, and was responsible for inciting hatred against minority groups, mostly Muslims. The Indian government accused Thackeray and his supporters for playing a major role in the 1992 Mumbai riots,
which had left more than 900 people dead. Over the years, Shiv Sena has made headlines for digging up cricket pitches ahead of matches against Pakistan, campaigning against Valentine's day and threatening young couples who celebrate it, and continuously threatening minorities. The range of opinions published following his death shed light on the character of Thackeray and how he maintained grip in one of the biggest cities in the world."
According to the "BBC," Bal Thackeray had called on suicide squads to carry out attacks against Muslims in 2002.
This is how BBC had described Thackeray: "The charismatic cartoonist-turned-politician railed against south Indians and Muslims, provoked his men to dig up cricket pitches, drank warm beer, smoked cigars, adored Adolf Hitler, hosted Michael Jackson ('Jackon is a great artist ... his movements are terrific,' he once said), berated women wearing jeans and renamed Bombay."
The "Wall Street Journal" had written: "He may have succeeded in changing Bombay's official name to Mumbai, and enforcing the usage by fear. But he found it harder to change the essentially tolerant nature of the city, which did not erupt in retaliatory violence after terrorist attacks such as the ones in November 2008. Bombay continues to lead the way forward for the country. It will take time for the city to heal, but it will."
The "Times of India" had viewed: "But with his clout, he could have transformed their lives and also, through the civic body which his party controls, made Mumbai a better place. Then the entire city would have mourned. Instead, it spent its Sunday shuttered at home. Thackeray's dead, but in the party that he formed, and the millions who follow him in the name of Hindu nationalism, he leaves behind a legacy. Following his death, when a 21-year-old woman posted a comment criticising him on Facebook, the police arrested her, as well as her friend who "liked" the comment, and members of Shiv Sena vandalised the clinic owned by the girl's uncle."