Mumbai: Last week, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at a Mumbai hotel, sparking much speculation about possible behind-the-scenes political moves.
But both Raut, also executive editor of Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana, and Fadnavis clarified that the meeting was for an interview in the Marathi daily, and that there wasn’t any more political significance attached to it.
While even as the possibility of explosive political discussions between the two leaders may be just conjecture, the move does offer a lens into the changing strategy of the Shiv Sena as well as its Saamana.
Especially since Raut also mentioned an interest in publishing interviews of BJP’s Amit Shah and Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, besides Fadnavis.
From being exclusively the voice of the Shiv Sena chief and a medium of “aadesh (order)” for the Shiv Sainiks, Saamana is now incorporating voices of leaders from other parties. Political watchers say, while it could simply be a ploy to attract more readers for Saamana, it also helps the party meet certain political goals by engaging with both its former and current allies.
“Shiv Sena is taking a leaf out of Sharad Pawar’s book and learning to maintain direct relationships with leaders of all parties. In times of trouble, these connections are always helpful,” political commentator Hemant Desai said.
“It is also an attempt to move away from the Shiv Sena’s national image of being an aggressive, hooligan, saffron party and establish a new identity as a softer, regular political outfit that can ally with any other, non-saffron parties at the national level too,” he added.
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Keeping all doors open
The concept of ‘marathon interviews’ in Saamana began during the Shiv Sena’s first government in Maharashtra from 1995 to 1999 when it was in alliance with the BJP. These are long, uncut interviews that Saamana publishes in two or three parts. But, until this year, these marathon interviews were exclusively for the members of the Thackeray family — founder Bal Thackeray and later the current party president, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
This year, in a first, Saamana published a three-part interview of a non-Thackeray leader, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar, in July.
“There’s no strategy behind this. We have to move with the times when we are catering to the new generation,” Raut told ThePrint.
“As a newspaper, we have published every news item, even those stories that are critical of the Shiv Sena. The cross-party interviews are a new feature,” he added. “Balasaheb used to always say that the opposition’s voice is equally important.”
Raut said it would be fair to say that Saamana wants to be a more democratic voice. A source associated with the paper, however, said, “The shift is more of a political strategy to keep all doors open as well as send a message to the Shiv Sena’s new allies, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), especially the latter.”
Following the 2019 assembly election, the Shiv Sena had splintered its pre-poll alliance with the BJP and formed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government with the Congress and NCP.
During the stalemate before the MVA government took power, NCP’s Ajit Pawar staged a midnight political coup with the BJP, forming a government with Fadnavis as CM and him as Deputy CM.
While this government fell in three days and Ajit Pawar is now CM Thackeray’s deputy, he and his son, Parth Pawar, have made frequent overtures to the BJP. Most recently, Ajit Pawar tweeted his tribute to Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader Deendayal Upadhyay on his birth anniversary, only to delete it later as it turned controversial.
“Deputy CM Ajit Pawar constantly has one leg here and one leg there. At such a time, the Shiv Sena wants to send a message to its current allies that the party can also do the same, if needed,” the source quoted above said. “It is to say that if we are close to Sharad Pawar and can publish his interview, we are also close to Fadnavis and are interviewing him too. We have other friends if the need arises.”
Bringing more readers to Saamana
Political commentator Prakash Bal said too much is being read into the meeting between Raut and Fadnavis last week.
“While anything can happen in politics, on the face of it, it is improbable that the Shiv Sena will go with the BJP now. Media channels sensationalised the Raut-Fadnavis meet,” Bal said. “If Uddhav Thackeray really wants to make the MVA government unstable, he will speak to Amit Shah or PM Narendra Modi, and not through mediators.”
He added that the only takeaway from the episode is that Saamana is trying to increase its readership.
“Only Shiv Sainiks subscribe to Saamana and read it. Now, many don’t need to buy Saamana to know what it says when leaders are directly talking to them on Twitter and Facebook and other news media are reproducing stories of the paper’s editorial line,” he added. “In this situation, it is possible that the paper is just trying to widen its readership base.”
According to market sources, Saamana has a circulation of about 1.5 lakh and a readership of approximately 7.5 lakh.
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I forgot to mention one this in the above article. In her many articles Manai Phadke the Print reporter makes repeated reference to Hemant Desai. Hemant Desai is a known Modi, BJP hater. Readers can check his videos on youtube. But Mansi never ever makes a mention of a very senior journalist Mr Bhau Torsekar, who maybe now in his late seventies and videoblogs regularly. Bhau Torsekar was once upon a time editor of Marmik, which was a Shiv Sena publication. So who would be in a better position to comment on Shiv Sena, Hemant Desai or Bhau Torsekar ? Please listen to both of them. Mansi Phadke and The Print will be surely exposed.
Once again a pathetic article from Mansi Phadke. It seems The Print has been paid to prop up the image of the Shiv Sena which has taken a severe beating after it abandoned its core ideology and its police handed over 2 Sadhus and their driver to a murderous mob who beat them to death. Allowing the most wanted financial fraudsters a free run from Lonavala to Mahabaleshwar by the govt, beating up of a Thane man at Minister Jitendra Avhad’s home by his goons, clueless and extremely poor handling of covid, suspected involvement of Aditya Thackeray in the Disha Salian and SSR deaths, and the dissatisfaction and rumblings within the coalitions due to the internal struggle for the sharing spoils of the power, breaking Kanganas home, beating up of ex navy man etc all this has severely tainted the image of the Sena in Maharashtra. Today it is a far cry from the respect Balasaheb commanded. People want a decisive and honest government and not ones involved in jod tod ki rajniti. If Sharad Pawar is the role model for Sena or for the writer of this article then I must say that the aim of the Sena is very low. This is because even after 30 years of forming the NCP Pawar has not been able to get majority on his own in his own state of Maharashtra. What does this say about Pawar’s credentials and political abilities ? This speak volumes about the substandard level of politics being accepted by this new age media. Manai Phadke says that it is improbable that the Sena will ever go with the BJP in Maharashtra. This is actually the godi media’s favourite wish that Sena remains with congress and NCP and forever remain in govt so as to keep the BJP away. Those who hold similar views are many in the national media…Shekhar Gupta, Barkha Radia tapes Dutt, Vir Radia tapes Sanghvi, N Ram, Foreigner Siddharth Vardarajan, Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan, the kist is too long. Probably these people like to be in denial and cant read the writing on the wall. Hence against every auch wish Modi rode to power in 2014, repeated in 2019 and will repeat in 2024 and 2029 too. Let Shiv Sena go with any Tom, Dick or Pawar, who cares.