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Shiv Sena : The war within

	July 11, 2005

An important ally of the BJP in the NDA, the Shiv Sena, is facing a crisis after the expulsion of the leader of the Opposition, Narayan Rane, from the party. The dissident leader, who was once very close to Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, is now threatening to split the party claiming the support of over 25 of the 63 party MLAs. Bal Thackeray’s son, Uddhav Thackeray, is keeping the Shiv Sena legislators in a hotel so that they are not able to walk over to the Rane camp. The party also paraded 52 of the MLAs before the Assembly Speaker to show that the bulk of the legislators remain with Bal Thackeray’s faction.

The crisis in the party started on Sunday, July 3, after Bal Thackeray sacked the former Chief Minister Narayan Rane for “betraying” him, as he put it.

However, a few hours later, Narayan Rane hit back accusing Bal Thackeray of ignorning his loyalty and sacrifice of Shiv Sainiks to promote his son, Uddhav, and of winking at the new money for posts culture in the party.

In the evening, there was tension on the streets of Mumbai, with looming fears of clashes between groups of Shiv Sainiks aligned to Rane and Uddhav. The police were on high alert, especially in the Nariman Point area of South Mumbai where Rane lives.

Rane told a news conference that orders had been issued to attack the homes of his supporters. “Ordering Rane’s expulsion at a meeting of Sena MLAs and leaders, Bal Thackeray said the former Chief Minister should resign from the Maharashtra Assembly as well.

Thackeray claimed he did not know what Rane’s problem was, “We had such strong ties, he had no reason to be angry with Uddhav.” Rane alleged he was victim of a conspiracy backed by Uddhav, his personal assistant Millind Narwekar, and Subhash Desai, a leader close to the Thackerays.



Both Congress and NCP woo Rane

Narayan Rane defied the Bal Thackeray directive expelling him from the Shiv Sena and issued a three-line whip to the party MLAs to attend today’s proceedings in the Maharashtra Assembly where some important Bills are to be discussed. But he received a setback when only nine MLAs attended a meeting convened by him. The turn out was way short of his claim of the support of 26 out of the 63 Shiv Sena MLAs. Rane accused Uddhav Thackeray of keeping over 50 MLAs under what he called a house arrest.

Rane has also been meeting both Congress and NCP leaders to explore the possibility of merging his faction with either of the two parties. His condition for joining the Congress is that he should be made the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, but after his failure to get the support of 20 odd MLAs, the chances of the Congress agreeing to his precondition are remote.

Reports say that the NCP played a role in driving a wedge between Narayan Rane and the Thackerays. NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s game plan is reported to be to have his party replace the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra so as to have a greater say at the national level.

With Bal Thackeray’s charisma waning, the BJP is scouting for fresh allies and observers say Pawar wants to play the saffron party against the Congress in Maharashtra.

Rane’s promise to bring along a few Shiv Sena members in the Lok Sabha, is also sweet music to Sharad Pawar who is looking for numbers in case attempts to form a third front at the national level bear fruit.

Clearly, Rane and Pawar cannot wait till the next elections and hence the wish to swallow the Shiv Sena.

For the past several weeks Rane and Pawar have been working on the dynamics of splitting the Shiv Sena. Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly Babasaheb Kupekar is a Pawar loyalist and has already begun to play a major role in Maharashtra’s latest political crisis.

He recognised Rane’s man, Vinayak Nimban as the Shiv Sena’s whip, thereby handing over control of the party to the dissident. Observers say that Narayan Rane’s exit from the Shiv Sena will impact the party’s fortunes in the Konkan Region, over which he retains a powerful hold. It will also affect the Shiv Sena’s position in Mumbai’s apex civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which the party has dominated for two decades. More than half of the 101 Shiv Sena Members in the BMC council belong to Sindhudurg, Rane’s home base.



UPA-Left differences

There is no end to the differences between the Manmohan Singh Government and the Left parties over policy issues, primarily those relating to the economy. No compromise is in sight on the question of disinvestment of 10 per cent Government stake in Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL). The reported offer by the Government to reduce the stake sale to five per cent has been rejected outright by the Left parties, who say that it is a question of principles and not petty give and take.

Another dimension to the UPA-Left differences has been added by the Left opposition to the Indo-US defence cooperation agreement. CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has said that the framework finalized by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee during his visit to Washington last month was detrimental to India’s independent foreign policy stand. Speaking at a public meeting in New Delhi Karat said the agreement is a major step for harnessing India to secure the US strategic and military interests.

According to Karat, the present framework violates the stand taken by the Government to maintain “multi-polarity” as set out in the national common minimum programme (CMP). It opposes the framework on four counts. First the Left is opposed to the clause in the framework that says India and the US will collaborate in “multinational operations without the UN ratification in cases where it is in the “mutual interest” of both countries.

Karat wanted to know if in effect, the Government would agree to the kind of “multi-national” operation being conducted by the US in Iraq and if not what were the kind of operations that would come outside the purview of such “multi-national cooperation.”

Second, according to the Left, the US interest in allowing India access to its missile defence systems is to “interlock” India in the grid of its own strategic measures.

The third clause opposed by the Left parties concerns the “shared security interests in the free flow of commerce” as the framework sets it out and the fourth clause deals with the co-production of weaponry.

The Left leaders continued with their opposition to the defence deals with the United States even after an attempt to placate them earlier on July 7. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee met Prakash Karat and CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan to brief them on the salient features of the agreement. He said that the framework signed in Washington was just an expression of intent to carry forward the 1995 Agreed Minute understanding with the US. Pranab Mukherjee told the Left leaders that there is no question of accepting a missile defence shield from anybody. The two leaders heard the Defence Minister, but said that their parties had reservations on the signing of the agreement.