Raj Thackeray

Raj Thackeray
Founder and chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena
Personal details
Born	(1968-06-14) 14 June 1968 Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Political party	Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Founder & President (Since 2006)
Spouse	Sharmila Thackeray
Children	1 son, Amit Thackeray 1 daughter Urvashi Thackeray
Residence(s)	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
As of May 4, 2008

Raj Shrikant Thackeray (Swar-raj Shrikant Thackeray) (Template:Lang-mr) (born 14 June 1968) is the founder and president of the right-wing Marathi ethnocentric regional political party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena ("Maharashtra Reformation Army") in the state of Maharashtra, India. He is the nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, and a cousin of the current Shiv Sena Executive President Uddhav Thackeray.

Personal life

Raj Thackeray was born on 14 June 1968. His official name is Swar-raj (स्वर-राज)Thackeray. His father, Shrikant Thackeray was the younger brother of Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray, and his mother, Kunda Thackeray is the younger sister of Balasaheb Thackeray's wife Meena Thackeray. Raj is married to Sharmila, daughter of the Marathi actor, producer and director Mohan Wagh. They have a son named Amit and a daughter named Urvashi.

Raj Thackeray was schooled at Bal Mohan Vidya Mandir School in the Central Mumbai suburb of Dadar, and graduated from the Sir J.J. College of Art.

Raj is a painter and a cartoonist. Raj operates an infrastructure development company – Matoshree Builders – which operates in Mumbai and its suburbs.

Like his cousin Uddhav Thackeray Raj is also an avid photographer. He has published a photo-biography on his uncle titled 'Bal Keshav Thackeray' - a photo-biography.

Controversies & Agitations

2008 violence against UP & Biharis

Main article: 2008 attacks on North Indians in Maharashtra

In February 2008 Raj Thackeray led a violent movement in what was labelled an andolan (uprising/ protest) against the supposed 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. 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. 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 ₹15,000 (US$180).

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.

Kohinoor mill controversy

Shiv Sena opposed sale of mill land, but Raj Thackeray bid for and won mill land in prime Mumbai real estate. 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$50 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.

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.

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.

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 from UP region, 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.

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, We are From UP, its very unfortunate." It was only after Amitabh tendered an apology that the screening resumed.

Following Raj's threat, Mumbai police acted against Raj, issuing a gag order preventing him from speaking to the media.

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.

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. 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.

Remarks on Chhath Puja and Migrants

Raj reproached North Indian leaders for politicizing Chhath Puja, a festival popular in Bihar, 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. 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. 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". The Navnirman Sena leader accused migrants of swamping Maharashtra, India's most industrialised state, in search of jobs.

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".

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 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.

MLA attacked in Maharashtra State Assembly

On Monday 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.

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.

Kalyan Dombivali 2010 Elections

Raj Thackeray had a spat with his uncle Balasaheb 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.

2011 Attacks on Auto Drivers

In Mumbai two drivers were assaulted, while in Thane five autos were damaged and the drivers assaulted. The Sion police arrested 12 Maharashtra Navnirman Wahatuk Sena workers for assault, illegal gathering, rioting and criminal intimidation. Though no cases were filed in Thane, city MNS chief Hari Mali said the attacks were led by his party as auto drivers were refusing to ferry passengers. A senior BJP leader accused the MNS of using the issue to target Biharis.

External links

• MNS Party Website
• Raj Thackerey's response in The Indian Express to Sudheendra Kulkarni's criticism
• New legal strategy to tame Raj