An SMS sent by a friend pinged into my cell last evening. It read, “Media needed to be thanked for the exaggerations about a campaign against Raj Thackeray. This will surely help Marathi manoos to enhance his image and check migration of north-Indians”.
Well I don’t quite agree with the latter part of the message, nevertheless it has amused me despite that I have no bias against Raj or his opponents. Just a game of a week and the big time media hype full of hate campaign has boosted small time Raj’s image into a political stardom- a similar stature that was previously enjoyed by Bal Thackeray and now by Narendra Modi- to gain political space.
Indeed, Raj’s rhetoric against ‘outsiders’ may have blacklisted him among intelligentsia and non-marathis, it has surely helped him get sympathy from Maharashtrian. For Raj, this sympathy wave may not be easy to turn into votes; but, a mass recognition, which he has got, isn’t less to be reckoned. This is especially true when the leader was struggling hard for issues to hit the headlines and find his own space. It is a different matter that marathis will be least benefited out of the whole.
