PERSONALITY : RAMESH THACKERAY

Kid brother is watching!
Ramesh says he earned Bal Thackeray’s displeasure because of his frank views
His brother heads a party. He hates politics. His brother is famous for his rightist views. He is an unknown entity who believes in humanity. His brother runs the government, he has to run from pillar to post to get his work done. His brother is getting houses built for slum dwellers, he does not have one.
Ramesh Thackeray, 56, was in the spotlight recently when he organised a rock concert on
the sprawling Chowpatty beach in Mumbai, complete with laser show and pop artistes like Remo Fernandes, Alisha Chinai and Baba Sehgal. All for the cause of AIDS. Till he took the stage, few were aware he is the youngest brother of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. The resemblance is unmistakable.
He could have taken advantage of his brother’s increasing clout, but he kept a low profile, starting various ventures, not succeeding always, yet persevering. He now seeks to set an agenda that will make him more than just Bal Thackeray’s brother. In the process, he is willing for a head on clash with Big Brother.
Ramesh has big plans as vice-president of the Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Foundation which was set up three years ago. "We want to raise a grand memorial for Shivaji," he says. He wants the government to allot 15 acres anywhere in Mumbai for this. "I have already spoken to the chief minister about it. We will decide a date and give the government one month’s time. If they do not agree, I will go on fast in front of the CM’s house or Mantralaya," he says firmly.
On the memorial site, Ramesh plans to raise a statue of Shivaji, build a world class library, museum, sports complex, computer college, a 500-room hotel, a co-operative bank, auditorium, shopping centre.... The list is exhaustive yet Ramesh is confident of achieving his goal. Though his track record is hardly impressive, he seems determined to complete the memorial and another project dear to his heart, an AIDS hospital named after his father Prabodhankar Thackeray.
He set up the Humane-AIDS society in February this year to propagate awareness about the disease. Its first major programme was the rock concert. "Some people criticised the show saying that a lot of money was spent. The message has spread from home to home. If we had invited a politician or doctor to speak on the subject, such a big crowd would not have come," points out Ramesh.
What convinced him about the need for such an organisation was an incident narrated by his close friend Dilip Kamwani, whose father was admitted in a room opposite an AIDS victim’s room in a Mumbai hospital. "The nurse removed the oxygen cylinder to give it to a VIP. When Dilip asked why, she said that the AIDS patient was going to die anyway! He felt we should start an andolan in Mumbai," explains Ramesh.
Ramesh says that like his father who was a columnist for two Marathi newspapers, his forte is writing. He is the editor of Arolee, started as a tabloid weekly in 1975. The first three issues sold at a loss while the fourth one sold in black because it contained an expose on Balasaheb Purandare, a respected social worker and close friend of Bal Thackeray. "I realised that people always wanted to know what their idols and ideals were doing," says Ramesh. "I was very close to my father. Some people who have read my father’s work say that I write like him," says Ramesh with pride.
Arolee was banned in October 1975 during the Emergency, for publishing articles critical of the Goa chief minister Sashikala Kakotkar. "The chief censorship officer told me to write mild articles but I refused," remembers Ramesh who could not pick up the link after being out of circulation for one year. So he was compelled to make Arolee a monthly and now only special issues are published. In 1969, he had started Chitratara a film weekly which became very popular. But Ramesh was beaten again when the rival magazines went for colour printing and he could not afford it. "Raj Kapoor and B.R. Chopra used to give me advertisements but I had no other source," says Ramesh who has preserved an album with beautiful black and white photographs of leading film stars and playback singers.

Good old days: A family get-together
to celebrate Bal Thackeray's birthday.
Meenatai doing aarti, young Raj Thackeray
and Ramesh behind him 		Ramesh lived with Bal Thackeray till a year after the Shiv Sena was formed in 1966. During the elections to the Bombay Municipal Corporation, he too campaigned along with other Sena leaders."
But Ramesh was soon disillusioned. "The Sena corporators didn’t do anything for the people. I felt it was all bogus and started hating politics," says Ramesh. He left Bal Thackeray’s house in June 1967. "I thought if I stayed I would suffocate."
He was still close to Thackeray, his wife Meenatai and the kids and would always be present for special occasions. But relations between the brothers soured after the riots following the Babri Masjid demolition and the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993. "It was shameful that for eight days Hindus were killed in front of Balasaheb’s house. He could not control it. And how did those terrorists have the guts to plant bombs near the Shiv Sena Bhavan? I had written some articles raising these questions. Balasaheb didn’t say anything directly to me but I heard he was unhappy," says Ramesh.
He is pained that Bal Thackeray has not taken his criticism in the right spirit. "Balasaheb is the only leader today who has the personality to become king of India. But he should leave the political path and win people through the social path. I respect him but I hate the dirty politics of Shiv Sena. I also point out his mistakes. As a brother I know him better than anyone else. I have the right to criticise him, it is my responsibility as a brother," he avers. "Unfortunately, Balasaheb has never understood me." Thackeray barely speaks to him.
Ramesh is also unhappy with the Shiv Sena-BJP government in the state. "There is no difference between them and the Congress. No one will vote for them after four years. From my experience, I can say that no minister, except Manohar Joshi and Pramod Navalkar, is working. And they are not accessible."
The brother of the most powerful leader in the state lives with family friends, in a modest asbestos-covered house. "It is really unfortunate that in Shiv Shahi (Shivaji’s rule) I don’t have a house," he says. Hurt he may be at being cold-shouldered for his frank views, but his pride will not allow him to seek his brother’s help. He does not fear any harm from the Shiv Sena cadre for his criticism of Bal Thackeray. "They know that I am not doing it to spoil his name but out of genuine respect and concern. Many Shiv Sainiks have told me that I am saying and writing what they think but don’t have the guts to tell Thackeray." A bachelor, Ramesh does regret not being married and having a family.
--MARIA ABRAHAM
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