The geriatric Thackeray and a Shiv Sena on an alarming decline is desperate for some media coverage after the drubbing handed out by the people of Maharashtra in the assembly polls. Nothing new here, except that the level of desperation is at an all time high, with Bhatija Thackeray snapping up the votes of the insane ones. Desperate folks tend to be sharp or stupid. In this case, Oldie T chose to be the latter and a monumental one at that!
Sachin Tendulkar elicits the same emotions that the National Anthem educes from Indians. A gross generalisation, but its true at least for an overwhelming majority. The kind of reverence that Sachin commands is perhaps comparable to Maradona in Argentina. Its suicidal and plain stupid to target a person, who transcends the divisions in the nation with the silliest of allegations.
It all started with a harmless remark from Sachin: "I am a Maharashtrian and I am extremely proud of that. But I am an Indian first. And Mumbai belongs to all Indians." A statement true for all patriotic and sane Indians. The variables here are Maharashtrian and Mumbai. Replace them and any one in the country can reuse this statement merrily.
What does Bala dude do? Took his pen and launched a scathing attack on Tendulkar for terming Mumbai is for Indians. The whole country rises up lambasts Thackeray. Everybody thought that was that. An outburst akin to an embarrassing high-bass fart in public. Apparently, Shiv Sena liked it so much that they decided to pass more gas.
In comes the next one from the Shive Sena MP Sanjay Raut: "There has been no instance of Sachin extending a helping hand to other Marathi cricketers. Forget others, he did not even support Vinod Kambli." He then goes to old reminisce the old days of the powerful Mumbai lobby: "In contrast, Gavaskar when he captained India, had half the team drawn from Mumbai and Maharashtra. He gave Test caps to many Marathi players including Suru Naik and Zulphikar Parkar at least for one match."
(I barely know about the politics during Gavaskar period, I don't know whether Gavaskar was the nepotist or the board during that time.Knowing our cricket board, all suspicions point to them than the Little Master. To put things in perspective, Vinod Kambli made multiple comebacks to International Cricket during Sachin's reign. The person Kambli kept out during that time went on to become one of the greatest batsman in modern cricket: Rahul Dravid.)
So, he is accusing Tendulkar for not being a Nepotist? Huh! When did nepotism become the preferred path?
Questions: When these folks say that Mumbai is not for Indians and only for Marathas, aren't they questioning the territorial integrity of India and violating the constitution? Shouldn't such outfits be completely banned or at least barred from elections? How can they uphold the spirit of constitution when they publicly denounce it through their actions? What exactly is our media doing apart from running and rerunning the dramatised news reports? Shouldn't they be the ones asking these questions?
Else, we can just watch the drama unfold and sit back and enjoy. After a while, find the next issue to relish and continue our meaningless existence as citizens.
