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Aaditya Thackeray’s Rise: Yuva Sena Chief to Shiv Sena Leader

How much do you know about the rising ‘son’ of the Shiv Sena?

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On Tuesday, 23 January, the Shiv Sena made two important announcements that changed political tides across Maharashtra – snapping ties with the BJP in 2019 and the elevation of Aaditya Thackeray from Yuva Sena Chief to a Shiv Sena Leader.

While the first announcement was long anticipated given the Sena’s ‘step-brotherly’ relationship with the ruling BJP in the state, the announcement of Aaditya’s elevation, too, didn’t raise as many eyebrows as one would expect.

While congratulations from the ranks and file of the party along with criticism from the opposition poured in, the grandson of party supremo Bal Thackeray will now be sharing the dias with senior party leaders like Mahohar Joshi, Diwakar Raote and Sanjay raut.

Aaditya’s anoinment on Bal Thackeray’s 91st birth anniversary begs the obvious question – Did he earn his position within the party or is this just another case of political nepotism?
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Yuva Sena – The Beginning of the Rise

Aaditya Thackeray, at the age of 20, established the youth wing of the Yuva Sena in 2010 with units across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir.

Under his leadership, the Yuva Sena undertook many youth-related causes across Maharashtra.

In 2010, Aaditya led students at Mumbai University in a movement to remove from the syllabus a book ‘Such a Long Journey’ by award-winning Indian author Rohinton Mistry. Aaditya said it was insulting to the people of Mumbai and Maharashtra.

According to The Guardian, Mistry issued a statement against the “sorry spectacle of book-burning and book-banning” and asking if one should feel “pity, disappointment or compassion” towards the instigator of the campaign.

Thackeray told The Guardian that though he opposed banning books and had no objections to the work being sold, Mistry’s work should not have been “enforced” by university authorities.

The violent protests by the Yuva Sena, however, only drew criticism and aligned the Yuva Sena’s image with Shiv Sena’s violent history.

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Aaditya – The Face of Transformation?

Shiv Sena, long known for its conservative political and social outlook while being in opposition has always garnered headlines for ‘sanskaari’ moral policing – like vandalising public property over Valentine’s Day celebrations for instance.

Aaditya, however, came with a fresh set of ideas, targeting the young voters, completely contradicting the general perception of the party for decades.

In an interview to The Guardian in 2014, Aaditya was quoted as saying:

These are changing times. My grandfather’s generations, my father’s generation, my generation, all have different needs. We are keeping our core values the same, but with time, priorities change.
Aaditya Thackeray told The Guardian
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In 2015, just a year after the Shiv Sena formed the government in alliance with the BJP, Aaditya sent a proposal to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to revive Mumbai’s ‘night life’. He proposed discarding the 1:30 am deadline for pubs and restaurants.

For Aaditya, the issue was as important for generating revenue and promoting tourism, as much as it was about protecting youth culture, reported Hindustan Times.

The Yuva Sena, in collaboration with the Shiv Sena, organised various campaigns across the state to train thousands of young people for jobs in sectors such as banking and in language-related career choices.

Aaditya’s initiative of free transport to schoolchildren in BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport) buses earned him a lot of appreciation.

On the party’s online portal, Aaditya introduced the teaching syllabus of government schools in audio-visual format.

Keeping focus on issues like environment and education, he has slammed the Mumbai University several times over question paper leaks and delayed results. As India Today reported, he recently took on Education Minister Vinod Tawde over the bungling in Mumbai University of the online assessment of students' answer sheets.

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A complete ban on use of plastic across Maharashtra from April 2018 imposed by the state also came after Aaditya’s proposal.

However, like the Shiv Sena, the Yuva Sena too has been in news for the wrong reasons. Its demonstrations against radio jockey Malishka for the Mumbai pothole jingle provoked much outrage.

The sizeable expense – Rs 45 lakh a piece – at his bidding to import six penguins to the city zoo to revive its flagging fortunes also drew a lot of criticism.

Good Cop, Bad Cop?

The young Thackeray scion certainly seems to be focussing on issues of a different colour than the ones the old Shiv Sena paid much attention to.

On the day of Aaditya’s elevation, party chief Uddhav Thackeray made the announcement that the party would be going national in 2019 ‘for the sake of Hindutva’.

Is this simply the Shiv Sena’s way of courting young/urban voters with a more progressive face, while holding onto the core Hindutva and Marathi votebank?

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(With inputs from The Guardian, Hindustan Times, India Today and ANI)

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