RAJ THACKERAY : A Media Monster

‘Son of soil’ slogan is in air again. You tune to any national channel, read any newspaper or access to any news website; this is one news item which has certainly got the maximum coverage in recent times. A less known figure of Raj Thackeray has emerged as one of the well known political figures of the country, of course for his wrong doings – courtesy the Indian Media.

Raj, graduated in politics under the guidance of his uncle Balasaheb Thackeray, knows how to use media to spread his agenda. Media gave Raj Thackeray and his followers all the useless coverage. Whatever words he uttered, meaningful or not, the news channels telecast it repeatedly in prime time. They organized and telecast different talk shows, debates; the more they disparaged the person the more he succeeded in his agenda.

All of a sudden this so-called regional issue started by a publicity-starved person became the hottest issue of concern for the nation; it even replaced 123 Agreement. Whatever he said was the breaking news and whatever his blind followers did openly on the road was the biggest incident for the media. It can be said that the media contributed in spreading hatred in north India against Raj and his followers. Raj Thackeray became a complete media monster.

As he became one of the most hated figures in north India, he also gained the status of a true safeguard of Maratha interest for his supporters. That is what he wanted to be! Effigies of Raj Thackeray were burnt in different places of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Again media toiled very hard to telecast all those protests against Maharashtra Nirvana Samiti (MNS) supremo and make him a ‘real martyr’ for his supporters. This also aided in the violence against north Indians in Mumbai and other parts of Maharastara.

Raj started his career with right wing party Shiv Sena but later separated his ways. When he formed his own party MNS, it became very clear that these two parties will fight for Maratha votes. But no one imagined that this dirty fight of vote bank will become so violent with the innocent people suffering.

In recent times, when Shiv Sena understood that it cannot come in power with Maratha votes alone, it strategically stopped opposing outsiders’ presence in Maharastra. This was the perfect occasion for Raj Thackeray to play his cards. He needed one platform to reach to his followers and even challenge Shiv Sena on the issue of ‘real Maratha’ and the media provided that stage to him.

The success of Raj Thackrey in getting the attention of the nation even raised the eyebrows of Uddhav Thackeray, the working President of Shiv Sena. Marathis are the traditional voters of Shiv Sena and the party would not like to lose them. Raj attacked Shiv Sena raising the same old issue of ‘sons of soil’ which was the reason behind this party’s formation in 60’s.

Shiv Sena would not like to give its own agenda to MNS at any cost and this became very clear when Uddhav went back to his party’s old agenda of ‘sons of soil’. He spoke very brutally against the labourers of other regions of the country who might be employed in the upcoming project to expand the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal airport of Mumbai.

Each and every step of this issue was completely under the focus of media. Anything related to this was given the full limelight. This pressure of media forced the ruling parties Congress and NCP to consider every aspect and solve all the equations, after all it was a question of vote bank. They didn’t want MNS to take any advantage from this issue. This delayed the whole legal action against Raj and his followers. If he was not in the limelight then he could have got arrested and everything would have stopped in the very beginning. Even when he got arrested it was only symbolical and nothing more than that.

Media’s extra alertness only added fuel to the fire. If the press had confined themselves to just reporting news and had not tried to cash on, the whole situation would have been different. It is high time that media does an introspection and draws some boundaries for it as well.