Raj Shrikant Thackeray
Personal life
Raj Thackeray was born on June 14,With The Name
Swaraj Thackeray in 1968
[1] in a Marathi
Kayastha (
CKP) family to Shrikant Keshav Thackeray and Kunda Thackeray, Shrikant Thackeray was the younger brother of
Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray and Raj's mother Kunda Thackeray is the younger sister of Balasaheb Thackeray's wife Meena Thackeray. Raj's father Shrikant Thackeray was a musician, cartoonist and was also well versed in the language of
Urdu. He also made a couple of Marathi films. Raj is married to Sharmila, daughter of famous Marathi theater/films actor, producer-director Mohan Wagh. They have one son named Amit Thackeray and one daughter Urvashi.
Raj Thackeray did his schooling from Bal Mohan Vidya Mandir School in the central
Mumbai suburb of
Dadar, close to his residence in Shivaji Park and later on graduated from the prestigious Sir J.J College of Art."
[2]
Like his father and uncle Raj is a gifted painter and cartoonist. He had also expressed his desire to work for
Walt Disney Studios. Raj Thackeray said when asked what he would have done had he not joined politics. "In my college days, I wanted to work with Walt Disney Studios. I drew cartoons even before my foray in politics. Film making is also a passion. I would have been doing either of these things."
[3][4] [5]
Raj is also an avid
photographer like his cousin
Uddhav Thackeray. Raj has also published a photo-biography on his uncle titled 'Bal Keshav Thackeray' - a photo-biography.
[citation needed]
Political career
Early life
Raj Thackeray's commonly-used name is a contraction of Swararaj. His
parents were Shrikant Thackeray (younger brother of Bal Thackeray) and
Kunda Thackeray (younger sister of Bal Thackeray's wife Meena
Thackeray). As a child he learnt the tabla, the guitar and the violin.
He had a keen sense of music. He also loved drawing which later turned
into a passion for drawing cartoons. He used to contribute cartoons to
Marmik, the weekly magazine of his school.
[1]
Political career
Political Views
Marathi identity
Raj Thackeray and his party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, state that
Maharashtra State,
Marathi language and
Marathi Manoos are subverted by the influence of Marathi politicians.
[3]
Opposition to immigrants
Raj Thackeray has opposed immigration into Maharashtra from
Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar.
[4]
Violence in Agitations
Raj Thackery and his party have been criticized for use of violence
during their agitations, especially directed towards immigrants from UP
and Bihar. On use of violence, Thackeray says that violence is a part of
all agitations in Indian politics, and there are several cases of much
more violence carried out by other parties and organisations. According
to him, the incidences of violence involving members of his party have
been unduly highlighted by North Indian politicians and journalists.
[4]
Support of Narendra Modi
Thackeray is an admirer of
Gujarat Chief Minister,
Narendra Modi for his governance, and the development of
Gujarat
during his tenure. In August 2008, Raj Thackeray visited Gujarat on a
9-day trip as 'state guest' to study the development in Gujarat. He also
advised politicians in Maharashtra, irrespective of party, to take
lessons from Modi and Gujarat.
[5] He has also expressed support for Modi for the post
Prime Minister of India for the 2014
Lok Sabha (general) election.
[6]
Controversies & Agitations
2008 violence against UP & Biharis
In February 2008 Raj Thackeray led a violent movement
[7][8] in what was labelled an
andolan (uprising/ protest) against the dominance of migrants from the
North Indian states of
Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar in
Maharashtra and more so in its commercial capital of
Mumbai. His party and Shiv Sena banned
Australian cricketers participating in
IPL 3 from playing in Mumbai as a protest against the attack on Indian students down under.
[9] At a rally in Shivaji Park, Raj warned that if the
dadagiri
(intimidating dominance) of these people in Mumbai and Maharashtra
continued, he would be compelled to make them leave the metropolis.
[10]
Raj was arrested along with a Samajwadi Party leader, Abu Azmi, for
their involvement in the fracas, but was released on paying a penalty of
15000 (US$270).
Acquittal in Kini murder case
In July 1996, Ramesh Kini was found dead in a cinema in Pune. Kini
was a tenant in a ramshackle tenement in central Mumbai, whose landlord,
Laxmikant Shah, was trying to evict him. Shah also happened to be a
close childhood friend of Raj Thackeray. A
CBI enquiry was later issued for the case, but the CBI dismissed the case as one of suicide.
[11]
Kohinoor mill controversy
Shiv Sena opposed sale of mill land, but Raj Thackeray bid for and won mill land in prime Mumbai real estate.
[12]
On 21 July 2005, Raj and Unmesh Joshi, son of Shiv Sena Leader Manohar
Joshi purchased a five acre plot of land, Kohinoor Mill No. 3, located
across the road from the Shiv Sena party headquarters in
Dadar, Mumbai for
421
crore (US$77 million). The
NCP leader from Mumbai, Sachin
Ahir,
objected to the sale of the Kohinoor Mill land, saying that there were
forty bids, yet only three were short-listed. He demanded a re-bid as
there was a lack of transparency in the move.
[13]
Insistence on Marathi signboards for Mumbai shops
In July 2008, Raj issued a public warning that Mumbai shops needed to
have Marathi signboards in addition to the existing English signboards.
He warned that after one month, MNS workers would start blackening
non-Marathi signboards. While there had been a law to this effect passed
earlier by
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, it had not been enforced.
Raj had also insisted that the Marathi signboards had to be at least
as big as the English signboards. A number of big shopowners, notably
Viren Shah (Roopam chain) went to court against this move. The
high-court provided them relief, passing a judgement that the Marathi
signboards did not have to be as big as English signboards.
[14]
In September 2008, MNS workers resorted to blackening signboards, to
enforce the demand, after which most shop owners complied. Six MNS
workers were arrested but later released on bail. The Congress
government was dilatory in filing chargesheets against them, following
which the Maharashtra high-court passed strictures against the
government. When the government prosecutor submitted in December that
the chargesheets had not been filed as investigation was ongoing, the
judge remarked sarcastically whether this was a murder case to warrant
such long investigations, three months after the arrest of the MNS
workers, but Raj was attempting to enforce a rule previously on the
books.
[15]
Reaction to Jaya Bachchan's controversial statement
The words of
Jaya Bachchan,
veteran actor and sitting Rajya Sabha MP of Samajwadi Party (with whom
Raj's MNS has crossed swords a number of times), during the Music launch
of the Hindi film
Drona, were deemed hurtful by Raj Thackeray.
Jaya's words 'Hum UP (
Uttar Pradesh)
ke log hain, isliye Hindi mein baat karenge, Maharashtra ke log Maaf
Kijiye' (We are people of UP, so we will speak in Hindi. People of
Maharashtra, please excuse) after her candid response to the film's
director, Goldie Behl, making his introductory speech in English and
subsequently encouraging the actress
Priyanka Chopra to speak in Hindi.
[16]
Raj commented that Jaya had no business alluding to all the people of
Maharashtra in that statement. He threatened to ban all Bachchan films
unless Jaya apologised in a public forum for hurting Maharashtrians. MNS
workers began to attack theatres screening
The Last Lear starring Jaya Bachchan's husband,
Amitabh Bachchan.
Shivsena MP Sanjay Raut also criticized Jaya's statement saying: "After
making all your success & fortune in Mumbai, if you feel like
saying that, its very unfortunate." It was only after Amitabh tendered
an apology that the screening resumed.
[17]
Following Raj's threat, Mumbai police acted against Raj, issuing a gag order preventing him from speaking to the media.
[18]
Against Jet Airways layoffs
In October 2008, on the eve of the major Indian festival Diwali,
Jet Airways
laid off 800 temporary workers and announced layoffs of an additional
1100 workers. The laid-off workers included Marathi as well as
North-Indians. These workers met Raj Thackeray and asked him to
intervene.
Following this, Raj Thackeray declared that most of these workers had
paid security deposits to the company, and he would meet Jet management
to plead their case. Unless Jet Airways cancelled the layoffs, his
party would not allow any Jet Airways plane to take off from any airport
in Maharashtra.
[19]
Within 12 hours of Raj Thackeray's declaration, Jet chairman
Naresh Goyal
reversed the layoffs and reinstated the sacked employees. He claimed
that he did it on his own and that there was no political pressure on
him. Leftist Unions, Shivsena & Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel
later tried to take credit for the decision. On announcement of the
layoffs, Praful Patel had claimed that he had no jurisdiction over the
layoffs issue.
[20]
Sacked Jet employees on the other hand stated that they were warned by
Jet management on reinstatement, not to meet Raj Thackeray to thank him.
[21]
Remarks on Chhath Puja and Migrants
Raj reproached North Indian leaders for politicizing
Chhath Puja, a festival popular in easern
Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, and
Jharkhand
calling it a "drama" and a "show of numerical strength". He stated that
the Chhath Puja was a political gimmick by some parties to attract the
north Indian vote. He questioned the motives by citing that the puja is
performed on the banks of a river, not the sea as it was being
performed.
[22] He demanded that they only celebrate Maharashtra day and not UP day in Maharashtra. A
petition was filed in the Patna civil court on 8 February against him for his remarks.
[23] His statements drew flak from political leaders across the board, especially those from the North Indian states. The then
Indian Railways minister and former
chief minister of Bihar,
Lalu Prasad Yadav,
vowed that he would come to Mumbai and perform Chhath Puja in front of
Raj's house, which he failed to perform. He also ridiculed Raj saying,
"He [Raj] is a child in politics".
[22] The Navnirman Sena leader accused migrants of swamping Maharashtra, India's most industrialised state, in search of jobs.
[24]
The MNS chief also accused migrants of disrespecting the local
culture. On 9 February, expressing his stance on new migrants settling
in Mumbai, Raj said, "New immigrants to the city should be denied entry
into the city, while those already staying here should show respect to
the Marathi 'manoos' and his culture".
[25]
Mumbai-Bombay Controversy: Wake Up Sid
On 2 October 2009, MNS workers disrupted the screening of the film
Wake Up Sid
on its release in a few Pune and Mumbai theatres, after Raj objected to
references in the movie to "Bombay" rather than "Mumbai". The city of
Mumbai was referred to as "Bombay" in many scenes
[26] and in some songs (lyrics by
Javed Akhtar). The film's producer,
Karan Johar,
visited Raj's residence to apologise, and agreed to all of Raj's terms,
including an apology on each of the 700 frames in the film.
[27]
MLA attacked in Maharashtra State Assembly
On 9 November 2009, during the oath-taking ceremony of the
Maharashtra State Legislative Assembly, MLAs from MNS physically
attacked Samajwadi party leader, MLA Abu Asim Azmi, as he began his oath
in Hindi instead of Marathi. Having been provoked by Abu Azmi that he
would not take the oath as legislator in Marathi, Raj Thackeray had
earlier warned the legislators to "take their oaths in Marathi only or
else face dire consequences". Azmi was pushed, punched and slapped by
MNS legislators even as other legislators who tried to protect Azmi were
pushed away. Other slogan-shouting MNS members displayed cloth banners
they had smuggled into the house and also damaged the fittings on
legislators' desks. Condemning the incident, the Assembly swiftly passed
a resolution suspending the four MNS legislators — Shishir Shinde,
Ramesh Wanjale, Ram Kadam and Vasant Gite for four years. They were also
barred from entering Mumbai and Nagpur whenever the assembly met in the
two cities. Abu Azmi was the only MLA the MNS members protested
against; they did not object to members who took their oath in other
languages such as Sanskrit and English.
[28]
Demand for introduction of Telecom customer service in Marathi
Telecom companies in Maharashtra had been providing customer service
in English & Hindi only. Raj demanded that all telecom companies
operating in Maharashtra start providing the service in Marathi also and
set a deadline of 27 February 2010, after which his party MNS would
launch an agitation. Following this demand, all telecom companies
complied, introducing Marathi as an additional option in their customer
service.
[29]
Kalyan Dombivali 2010 Elections
Raj Thackeray had a spat with his uncle Bal Thackeray during election rallies for the first time since the inception of
MNS. Both the parties declared war of words. The result of election were MNS winning 28 seats and Shiv Sena winning 31 seats.
Maharashtra-Karnataka Border Issue
In Dec 2011, Raj Thackeray meeting a group from MES (Maharshtra
Ekikaran Samiti) advised them that they should revisit their stand of
merging
Belgaum
with Maharashtra in the interest of marathi speaking people of Belgaum.
In a major departure from the earlier held stand of traditional right
wing groups of Maharashtra, Raj Thackeray pointed out that a practical
approach rather than an emotional one is the need of the hour.However,he
advocated that if the supreme court itself gives a decision in favor of
Belgaum's merger, he would welcome it but the local situation in
belgaum should not be vitiated for the sake of it. He asked the MES
leaders to first identify the real issue as to whether marathis in
belgaum are being targeted for espousing the cause of
marathi
language or because they were supporting the merger of belgaum with
Maharashtra. Lamenting that strikes and bandhs only add to the misery of
the Marathi-speaking community in Belgaum, Thackeray said: "If the
Karnataka government is ready to respect the Marathi people, their
culture and language, then there is nothing wrong in Belgaum being
there."
[30] His comments were strongly criticized by his cousin
Uddhav Thackeray as a cruel joke on the marathi manoos.
[31]
Personal life
Raj is married to Sharmila, daughter of Marathi actor,
producer-director Mohan Wagh. They have one son named Amit Thackeray and
one daughter Urvashi Thackeray.
