Bal Thackeray finally departed to the eternal world having dominated the political scene of Maharashtra for half a century. He has gone where everyone has to go willy-nilly whatever he or she might have been, king or commoner, saint or sinner. We sow here and reap there. Those who sowed good will reap a rich harvest of rewards and blessings and those who have sown hate and fear will surely meet greater degree of fear and torment, for a very very long period. The success and failure of a person would be decided only there.
Thackeray, to Shiv Sainiks whom he nurtured, and to millions of others was a tiger roaring against his opponents and putting fear in his denigrators’ hearts. To Hindutva Parivar he was a true friend in thick and thin of their ups and downs.
He put fear, from time to time, in the hearts of South Indians, UP- and Bihar-walas and in this respect the Muslims were his favourite targets.
The whole country was ashamed of demolition of Babri Masjid but he was proud of his obedient Shiv Sainiks who participated in this vile act. After the demolition of Babri Masjid the economic capital of India witnessed widespread riots, arson and massacre of innocents which had the blessings of Bal Thackeray. He openly said that he was proud of his Shiv Sainiks and their role (in riots). He was so feared by the then Congress Chief Minister of Maharashtra Sudhakarrao Naik that the latter refused to arrest him because he feared it would burn the whole city of Bombay (now Mumbai). He was considered so powerful that not only the Bombay High Court but even the Supreme Court did not entertain the petitions to direct the Maharashtra government to prosecute him for his hate-filled editorials against Muslims in his paper Saamna. Srikrishna Commission indicted him in no uncertain terms for his role in stoking the fires of 1992-93 pogroms of Muslims. The Commission termed him as a veteran general who commanded his loyal Shiv Sainiks to retaliate by organised attacks against Muslims.
It goes to his credit that in spite of all his inflammatory speeches and writings in black and white he never faced a trial. Hate speech cases against him were always withdrawn. There is one exception that he was slapped with a six-year voting right ban in 1999 by Bombay High Court for being guilty of election crimes.
Some politicians are careful in praising or criticising him. And journalists are gradually opening their mouths and criticising his style of politics. Many people are undecided whether to mourn such a person or not. But there is a prayer on everyone’s lip that the legacy of hate and fear must come to an end.