But, as some of the recent developments in Mumbai show, the behavioural changes were superficial. The innate aggressive instincts had remained. It took only the provocative ploys of a combative actor to reveal the Sena’s hitherto hidden face.

True, it wouldn’t have been easy to avoid falling into the trap set by the actor with her incendiary comparison of Mumbai with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and of the Mumbai municipality’s demolition squad which tore down her office with Babur’s army.

Her political objective is clear. As is the inspiration of the party behind it. It is a continuation of the Hindutva brotherhood’s labelling of political opponents as anti-national and pro-Pakistani. It is also an instance of Islamophobia which is inherent in the saffron camp, which includes its troll army and champions in the media.

The confrontation between the Sena and the actor is probably also a part of the BJP’s proxy war against the Sena as the ruling party at the centre tries to get its own back after being outwitted in Maharashtra where it lost power. For the Sena, which has been reared since its formation in the mid-1960s on the take-no-prisoners attitude, it was virtually impossible to take the actor’s insulting slurs lying down although this was what the Sena’s senior coalition partner, Sharad Pawar, wanted it to do.

His advice to the Sena apparently was to ignore the provocateur. But the Sena apparently feared that the turn-the-other-cheek solution would confuse and perhaps even alienate its core middle class base. It is a risk which the party could not take with a clone flaunting the same bellicosity, Raj Thackeray’s outfit, waiting in the wings to poach on the disgruntled Sena rank and file.

Hence, the tearing down of the actor’s office by the Brihanmumbai municipal corporation’s bulldozers even as the Bombay high court gave an adverse judgment. If the Sena had stopped there, it might have got away relatively unscathed. After all, arbitrary action by the powers-that-be is not only the Sena’s prerogative. Other authorities, too, have been less than careful about the peremptory use of power as the Allahabad high court’s indictment of the detention of a doctor in U.P. under the National Security Act showed.

Besides, the seemingly selective manner in which the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Enforcement Directorate and other agencies pick on mainly the political opponents of the ruling party at the centre is also evidence of the fact that the letter and spirit of the law are not always strictly followed. From this standpoint, the Sena’s rough-and-ready tactics can appear to be in keeping with the provocative ways of its main adversary in Maharashtra.

But the Sena made the mistake of not stopping after wrecking the actor’s office, controversial as that decision was since it appeared to be a means of settling scores. However, the subsequent physical attack on an elderly person for sharing a cartoon of the chief minister on the Internet has made it lose any points it may have gained in its fight with its pesky opponent in Mumbai.

Unless the Sena charts a careful course from now on and not revert to type, it will be in danger of losing ground to the actor, who has shown a willingness to give back as good as she gets even if she is emboldened by the political backing which she is receiving along with the high security provided by a cordon of paramilitary personnel allotted to her by the centre.

The Sena has to be considerably circumspect since it is at the crossroads of its half-a-century-old career. After the assembly elections, it has moved from the extreme Right of the ideological spectrum to the middle ground to forge an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress. The combine is still on a rocky ground because of the inherent incompatibility of the two groups. But, up until now, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has managed the coalition reasonably well.

The latest rumpus following the death of a Bollywood star along with allegations about the manner of his demise, the use of narcotics and the role of the Mumbai police has created an unforeseen crisis because of the conspiracy theories on each and every aspect of the tragedy. The critical situation has also been exacerbated by media hype.

The scene would have posed a challenge even to an experienced administrator, not least because of the prevailing pandemic. For the chief minister to keep his head above the turbulent waters, he has to keep his party in check. (IPA Service)