With its attention-grabbing antics and intimidating tactics laced with violence, the Shiv Sena is turning out to be a huge embarrassment for not only the BJP, its senior partner in government at the Centre and in Maharashtra, but also for Indian diplomacy. The >black-paint attack in Mumbai by its activists on >Sudheendra Kulkarni for organising the launch of a book written by former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid >Mahmud Kasuri might have been intended as a challenge to the BJP in Maharashtra, but it also poses difficulties for India in dealing with Pakistan, and in seeking the support of other nations against Pakistan. To many in Pakistan, the Indian political class as a whole must have appeared as a mirror image of their own politicians and jihadists, spewing venom and instigating violence. Not surprisingly, >the attack drew criticism from several quarters , including former Indian diplomats who would have known what damage such incidents can do to bilateral relations. The Sena came through no better than those very forces in Pakistan it was seeking to condemn. If it thought that blackening the face of Mr. Kulkarni would appeal to sections beyond its core constituency, the Sena was badly mistaken. The attack was evidently meant to break the spirit of Mr. Kulkarni, but it only hardened his resolve: refusing to be intimidated, he faced the media with the paint still on his face, showing up the Sena for its petty-mindedness and cowardliness. Even those who might have sympathised with the >Sena’s larger intention would have seen how counter-productive its actions turned out to be.
Evidently, the Sena was trying to retrieve lost ground in Maharashtra, and not to make things difficult for Indian diplomats engaging with Pakistan. The Sena, after having been the senior partner in its alliance with the BJP, is now reduced to the status of a junior partner in the Devendra Fadnavis government. As a party that had realised the limitations of Marathi chauvinism as a political tool, the Sena embraced Hindutva, hoping to use the BJP as no more than an electoral prop. But it was the BJP that grew at the Sena’s expense, leading to the break-up of the alliance last year, and the BJP winning nearly twice as many seats as the Sena in the Assembly election. Not surprisingly, the attack on Mr. Kulkarni saw some sharp comments by Chief Minister Fadnavis, who chided the Sena for bringing disrepute to Maharashtra. The Sena responded by announcing that it would contest the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation election without an alliance with the BJP. Thus, besides causing a serious erosion of India’s moral authority in dealing with Pakistan, it could unsettle again the BJP’s relations with the Sena. Mr. Kulkarni washed away the paint, but the attack on him might have tarred the Sena for a long time to come.
