The three days of drama that was played out by channels finally ended as his funeral pyre was consigned to flame ,mercifully, without Mumbai being burnt. However, his eulogization contined for long, very long.
He was a
man who was accused in dozens of different criminal cases, was indicted
by law for his supremacy in the Bombay riots, had boasted that if he is
arrested than the whole of Bombay will burn and yet none of the famed journalists, columnists, anchors and activists, even mentioned, even for the sake of moral
ethics, the dark side of this man. Was it fear? Hypocrisy? or both?
The next day
came as a bigger shock, with all the newspapers devoting most
of their resources to glorify the tale of this man, who much to my amusement,
was called by one of the channels as the ‘tiger’ of Maharashtra.
He was
glorified when he was alive and he immortalized when he died. I was told by some
of my friends that Mumbai mourned, like it has never before, on his death. But
I believe that even though the decibel was much lower and there was not a human
flood to prove it, yet the heart of Mumbai bled the most when it was attacked
on the infamous night of 26/11.
Even though
the ocean of followers gave the "undisputed king of Mumbai" a teary farewell, as
described by a leading English daily, it is not a big ask to imagine the pain
of Mumbaikars, would have been much
more, when Mumbai was burning during the 1992 riots, which led to the ‘E’ from
the iconic ‘Bombay dyeing’ being erased.
The man was
responsible for holding a beautiful city to ransom till he was alive and when
he died the city still struggled to come out of its suffocating hold.
He created a
myth that it was because of him that the under world was checked and it was
because of him that the ‘religious balance’ of the city was kept in check.
Such was his
legacy, some ‘idiot’ might call it fear, that people who are admired by
thousand others, made sure that their name is registered in the list of those
who paid their last homage to him. He ruled through fear and this fear was
evident even after his death.
But let’s
step back and think of those who lost their lives in the hands of his goons. What
would have been going though their minds? How would have they felt after
witnessing the endless onslaught of glorification and eulogizing of someone who
single handedly sowed a seed of long lasting mistrust between two communities?
Someone who became world famous for ‘successfully’ holding Bombay riots?
B.N.
Srikrishna Commission, that was asked to look into the riots, had these words
for him-"Veteran general commanding his loyal Shiv Sainiks to retaliate by
organised attacks against Muslims.”
The commission
had left nothing to ambiguity – “There is no doubt that the Shiv Sena and Shiv
Sainiks took the lead in organising attacks on Muslims and their properties
under the guidance of several leaders" from the level of shakha pramukh to
that of Sena chief Bal Thackeray”.
But this man
was never arrested, never faced trial and was never asked that how does one
justify the killing of harmless humans. He was a shadow of darkness that was
there even on the brightest of Mumbai night. His arrest was unthinkable- Bombay
would have burned.
Whom were we
praising? Some anchors told me that he was a mass leader, an efficient
organizer or more ironically an artist of par excellence, who was put in the
same league of R.K Lakshman by others.
But, was not
he responsible for 900 deaths in Mumbai? No- that happened in 1992. Twenty
years of politics and hooliganism can wash of many things, including murder.
Some would
say that he deserved the state funeral that he was accorded with. They will
also say that his final journey was well served by the presence of superstars,
industrialists and politicians alike. But a few would like to know that was not
he a murderer after all? A mass murderer?
They tell me
that thousands cried when he passed away but spare a moment for those who died
in 1992 and their relatives who will have to live with the fact that the
perpetrator of those riots died without being brought to justice.
Mumbai might have cried for him but it was Bombay that suffered the most because of him.
