Raj Thackeray

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Raj Thackeray

Raj Thackeray
Raj Thackeray

Born 14 June 1968 (age 42)

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Political party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Founder &

President (Since 2006)

Spouse(s) Sharmila Thackeray

Children 1 son (Amit Thackeray); 1 daughter

(Urvashi Thackeray)

Residence Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Religion Hindu

Raj Shrikant Thackeray (Swar-raj Shrikant Thackeray) (Marathi: राज ठाकरे) (born 14 June
1968) is the founder and president of the right-wing Marathiethnocentric regional political party,
the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena ("Maharashtra Reformation Army") in the state
of Maharashtra, India. He is the nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, and a cousin of the
current Shiv Sena Executive President Uddhav Thackeray.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Personal life

• 2 Controversies & Agitations

○ 2.1 2008 violence against UP & Biharis

○ 2.2 Acquittal in Kini murder case

○ 2.3 Kohinoor mill controversy

○ 2.4 Insistence on Marathi signboards for Mumbai shops

○ 2.5 Reaction to Jaya Bachchan's controversial statement

○ 2.6 Agitation against Jet Airways Lay-offs

 ○ 2.7 Remarks on Chhath Puja and Migrants

○ 2.8 Bombay-Mumbai Controversy: Wake Up Sid

○ 2.9 MLA attacked in Maharashtra State Assembly

○ 2.10 Demand for introduction of Telecom customer service

in Marathi

○ 2.11 Kalyan Dombivali 2010 Elections

• 3 References

• 4 External links

[edit]Personal life
Raj Thackeray was born on 14 June 1968 as a Kayastha, a member of a CKP family; his official
name is Swarraj Thackeray.[1] His father, Shrikant Thackeray was the younger brother of Shiv
Sena, and his mother, Kunda Thackeray is the younger sister of Balasaheb Thackeray's
wife Meena Thackeray. Raj is married to Sharmila, daughter of the famous Marathi actor,
producer and director Mohan Wagh. They have a son named Amit and a daughter named
Urvashi.

Raj Thackeray was schooled at Bal Mohan Vidya Mandir School in the Central Mumbai suburb
of Dadar, and graduated from the Sir J.J. College of Art.

Raj is a painter and a cartoonist[citation needed]. When asked what he would have done had he not
joined politics Raj Thackeray said: "In my college days, I wanted to work with Walt Disney
Studios. I drew cartoons even before my foray in politics. Film making is also a passion. I would
have been doing either of these things."[2] Raj operates an infrastructure development company
– Matoshree Builders &ndash, which operates in Mumbai and its suburbs.[3]

Like his cousin Uddhav Thackeray Raj is also an avid photographer. He has published a photo-
biography on his uncle titled 'Bal Keshav Thackeray' - a photo-biography.[4]

[edit]Controversies & Agitations

[edit]2008 violence against UP & Biharis
Main article: 2008 attacks on North Indians in Maharashtra

In February 2008 Raj Thackeray led MNS in what was labelled an andolan (uprising/ protest)
against the supposed dominance of migrants from the North Indian states of Uttar
Pradesh and Bihar inMaharashtra and more so in its commercial capital of Mumbai. His party
and Shiv Sena banned Australian cricketers participating in IPL 3 from playing in Mumbai as a
protest against the attack on Indian students down under, while he himself was engaging in
similar attacks on the people of his own country.[5] At a rally in Shivaji Park, Raj warned that if
the dadagiri (intimidating dominance) of these people in Mumbai and Maharashtra continued, he
would be compelled to make them leave the metropolis.[6] Raj was arrested along with a
Samajwadi Party leader, Abu Azmi, for their involvement in the fracas, but was released on
paying a penalty of Rs.15,000.

[edit]Acquittal in Kini murder case

In July 1996, Ramesh Kini was found dead in a cinema in Pune. Kini was a tenant in a
ramshackle tenement in central Mumbai, whose landlord, Laxmikant Shah, was trying to evict
him. Shah also happened to be a close childhood friend of Raj Thackeray. Raj and his men
allegedly killed Ramesh in order to vacate the house. A CBI enquiry was later issued for the
case, but the CBI dismissed the case as one of suicide.[7]

[edit]Kohinoor mill controversy

Shiv Sena opposed sale of mill land, but Raj Thackeray bid for and won mill land in prime
Mumbai real estate.[8] On 21 July, 2005, Raj and Unmesh Joshi purchased a five acre plot of
land, Kohinoor Mill No. 3, located across the road from the Shiv Sena party headquarters
in Dadar, Mumbai for Rs 421 crore. The NCP leader from Mumbai, Sachin Ahir, objected to the
sale of the Kohinoor Mill land, saying that there were forty bids, yet only three were short-listed.
He demanded a re-bid as there was a lack of transparency in the move.[9]

[edit]Insistence on Marathi signboards for Mumbai shops

In July 2008, Raj issued a public warning that Mumbai shops needed to have Marathi
signboards in addition to the existing English signboards. He warned that after one month, MNS
workers would start blackening non-Marathi signboards. While there had been a law to this
effect passed earlier by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, it had not been enforced.

Raj had also insisted that the Marathi signboards had to be at least as big as the English
signboards. A number of big shopowners, notably Viren Shah (Roopam chain) went to court
against this move. The high-court provided them relief, passing a judgement that the Marathi
signboards did not have to be as big as English signboards. [10]

In September 2008, MNS workers resorted to blackening signboards, to enforce the demand,
after which most shop owners complied. Six MNS workers were arrested but later released on
bail. The Congress government was dilatory in filing chargesheets against them, following which
the Maharashtra high-court passed strictures against the government. When the government
prosecutor submitted in December that the chargesheets had not been filed as investigation
was ongoing, the judge remarked sarcastically whether this was a murder case to warrant such
long investigations, three months after the arrest of the MNS workers, but Raj was attempting to
enforce a rule previously on the books. [11]

[edit]Reaction to Jaya Bachchan's controversial statement

The words of Jaya Bachchan, veteran actor and sitting Rajya Sabha MP of Samajwadi Party
(with whom Raj's MNS has crossed swords a number of times), during the Music launch of the
Hindi filmDrona, were deemed hurtful by Raj Thackeray.

Jaya's words 'Hum UP ke log hain, isliye Hindi mein baat karenge, Maharashtra ke log Maaf
Kijiye' (We are from UP region, so we will speak in Hindi. People of Maharashtra, please
excuse) after her candid response to the film's Director, Goldie Behl, making his introductory
speech in English and subsequently encouraging the actress Priyanka Chopra to speak in
Hindi.[12]

Raj commented that Jaya had no business alluding to all the people of Maharashtra in that
statement. He threatened to ban all Bachchan films unless Jaya apologised in a public forum for
hurting Maharashtrians. MNS workers began to attack theatres screening The Last Lear starring
Jaya Bachchan's husband, Amitabh Bachchan. Shivsena MP Sanjay Raut also criticized Jaya's
statement saying: "After making all your success & fortune in Mumbai, if you feel like saying
that, We are From UP, its very unfortunate." It was only after Amitabh tendered an apology that
the screening resumed.[13]

Following Raj's threat, the Mumbai police acted against Raj, issuing a gag order preventing him
from speaking to the media.[14]

[edit]Agitation against Jet Airways Lay-offs

In October 2008, on the eve of the major Indian festival Diwali, Jet Airways laid-off 800
temporary workers & announced lay-offs of an additional 1100 workers. The laid off workers
included Marathi as well as North-Indians. These workers met Raj Thackeray & asked him to
intervene. Following this, Raj Thackeray declared that most of these workers had paid security
deposits to the company, and he would meet Jet management to plead their case. Unless Jet
Airways cancelled the lay-offs, his party would not allow any Jet Airways plane to take off from
any airport in Maharashtra.[15]

Within 12 hours of Raj Thackeray's declaration, Jet chairman Naresh Goyal reversed the lay-
offs & reinstated the sacked employees. He claimed that he did it on his own & that there was
no political pressure on him. Leftist Unions, Shivsena & Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel later
tried to take credit for the decision. On announcement of the layoffs, Praful Patel had claimed
that he had no jurisdiction over the layoffs issue.[16] Sacked Jet employees on the other hand
stated that they were warned by Jet management on reinstatement, not to meet Raj Thackeray
to thank him.[17]

[edit]Remarks on Chhath Puja and Migrants

Raj reproached North Indian leaders for politicizing Chhath Puja, a festival popular in Bihar,
calling it a "drama" and a "show of numerical strength". He stated that the Chhath Puja was a
political gimmick by some parties to attract the north Indian vote. He questioned the motives by
citing that the puja is performed on the banks of a river, not the sea as it was being performed.
[18]
He demanded that they only celebrate Maharashtra day and not UP day in Maharashtra.
A petition was filed in the Patna civil court on February 8 against him for his remarks.[19] His
statements drew flak from political leaders across the board, especially those from the North
Indian states. The then Indian Railways minister and former chief minister of Bihar, Lalu Prasad
Yadav, vowed that he would come to Mumbai and perform Chhath Puja in front of Raj's house,
which he failed to perform. He also ridiculed Raj saying, "He [Raj] is a child in politics".[18] The
Navnirman Sena leader accused migrants of swamping Maharashtra, India's most industrialised
state, in search of jobs.[20]

The MNS chief also accused migrants of disrespecting the local culture. On February 9,
expressing his stance on new migrants settling in Mumbai, Raj said, "New immigrants to the city
should be denied entry into the city, while those already staying here should show respect to the
Marathi 'manoos' and his culture".[21]

[edit]Bombay-Mumbai Controversy: Wake Up Sid

On 2 October 2009, MNS workers disrupted the screening of the film Wake Up Sid on its
release in a few Pune and Mumbai theatres, after a Raj objected to references in the movie to
"Bombay" rather than "Mumbai". The city of Mumbai was referred to as Bombay in many scenes
because of the colloquial parlance used in the film [22] and in some songs (lyrics by noted
poet, Javed Akhtar) to evoke romantic nostalgia. The film's producer, Karan Johar, rushed to
Raj's residence, profusely apologising and agreed to all of Raj's terms, including an apology on
each of the 700 frames in the film.[23]

[edit]MLA attacked in Maharashtra State Assembly

On Monday 9 November 2009, during the oath-taking ceremony of the Maharashtra State
Legislative Assembly, MLAs from MNS physically attacked Samajwadi party leader, MLA Abu
Asim Azmi, as he began his oath in Hindi instead of Marathi; Raj Thackeray had earlier warned
the legislators to "take their oaths in Marathi only or else face dire consequences". In response,
Azmi had declared that he would take his oath in Hindi, maintaining that he did not know
Marathi. Azmi was pushed, punched and slapped by MNS legislators even as other legislators
who tried to protect Azmi were pushed away. Other slogan-shouting MNS members displayed
cloth banners they had smuggled into the house and also damaged the fittings on legislators'
desks. Condemning the incident, the Assembly swiftly passed a resolution suspending the four
MNS legislators — Shishir Shinde, Ramesh Wanjale, Ram Kadam and Vasant Gite for four
years. They were also barred from entering Mumbai and Nagpur whenever the assembly met in
the two cities. Abu Azmi was the only MLA the MNS members protested against; they did not
object to members who took their oath in other languages such as Sanskrit and English.[24]

[edit]Demand for introduction of Telecom customer service in

Marathi
Telecom companies in Maharashtra had been providing customer service in English & Hindi
only. Raj demanded that all telecom companies operating in Maharashtra start providing the
service in Marathi also & set a deadline of February 27, 2010, after which his party MNS would
launch an agitation. Following this demand, all telecom companies complied, introducing
Marathi as an additional option in their customer service. [25]

[edit]Kalyan Dombivali 2010 Elections

Raj Thackeray had a spat with his uncle Balasaheb Thackeray during election rallies for the first
time since the inception of MNS. Both the parties declared war of words. The result of election
were MNS winning 28 seats and Shiv Sena winning 31 seats.

[edit]References

1. ^ "Website is offline". Jansamachar.net. Retrieved 2010-08-11.

2. ^ "Raj Thackeray wanted to work with Walt Disney".

Apakistannews.com. 2008-10-10. Retrieved 2010-07-28.

3. ^ Sunil, Ghume (10 February 2010). "Employ 'Marathi Manoos'

only, Sena reminds Raj Thackeray". Maharashtra Times (Times of
India). Retrieved 10 February 2010.

4. ^ "Raj: Sainik Rebel Now a Scholar?". DNA. December 7, 2005.

Retrieved 2009-10-23.

5. ^ NDTV India/ New Delhi July 22, 2005 (2010-01-14). "Shiv Sena
targets Australians in IPL". NDTV India. Retrieved 2010-08-04.
6. ^ "Raj Thackeray dares Maharashtra govt on north Indians'
stand". NDTV. May 3, 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-06. "Addressing a
crowded public meeting at Shivaji Park in central Mumbai, the
place where his uncle and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray
addresses his annual Dussehra rallies, Raj warned if the dadagiri
of north Indians in Mumbai and Maharashtra continued, he would
be compelled to make them leave the metropolis."

7. ^ "Rediff On The NeT: Dilip D'Souza on the Ramesh Kini case".

Rediff.com. Retrieved 2010-07-28.

8. ^ Indian Express/ Mumbai July 22, 2005 (2005-07-22). "Sena

opposes mill sale, its leaders buy one". Indian Express. Retrieved
2010-08-04.

9. ^ Renni Abraham / Mumbai July 22, 2005 (2005-07-22). "Kohinoor

Mill sold for Rs 421 cr". Business-standard.com. Retrieved 2010-
07-28.

10. ^ Rao, Shashank (2009-02-16). "Big Marathi signboards not

necessary". Mid-day.com. Retrieved 2010-07-28.

11. ^ "Marathi signboards issue: 'Is this a murder trial?'".

Indianexpress.com. 2008-12-05. Retrieved 2010-07-28.

12. ^ "rediff.com: Jaya Bachchan's controversial clip".

Specials.rediff.com. Retrieved 2010-07-28.

13. ^ "Khaleej Times Online". Khaleejtimes.com. 2009-10-16.

Retrieved 2010-07-28.

14. ^ “”. "ronak story MNS bans Bachchan movies". YouTube.

Retrieved 2010-07-28.

15. ^ “” (2008-05-25). "Raj Thakre Helps Jet Airways Staff". YouTube.

Retrieved 2010-07-28.

16. ^ “”. "Jet airways Employees vow Raj Thakre for jobs". YouTube.
Retrieved 2010-07-28.

17. ^ "Jet barred us from meeting Raj Thackeray: Crew".

news.outlookindia.com. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
 18. ^ a b "Jaya takes on Raj; MNS, SP activists clash in Mumbai". The
Hindu. 2008-02-03. Retrieved 2008-04-04.

19. ^ "Petition against Raj Thackeray in Patna court". Zee News.

Retrieved 2008-04-04.

20. ^ "Right-wing Mumbai leader arrested". BBC NEWS. 2008-02-13.

Retrieved 2008-07-26.

21. ^ "'Respect Marathi manoos or leave Mumbai'". Rediff. 2008-02-

09. Retrieved 2008-04-04.

22. ^ "Front Page News : Wednesday, July 28, 2010". The Hindu.
Retrieved 2010-07-28.

23. ^ "Wake Up Sid in trouble: Rediff.com Movies". Movies.rediff.com.

2009-10-02. Retrieved 2010-07-28.

24. ^ "Azmi attacked over Hindi oath, four MNS members

suspended". The Hindustan Times. November 9, 2009. Retrieved
2009-11-09.

25. ^ Anthony, Bobby (2010-02-18). "Cellular companies to have

Marathi voice assistance". Mid-day.com. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
[edit]External links
 MNS Party Website

 Raj Thackerey's response in The Indian Express to Sudheendra

Kulkarni's criticism

 New legal strategy to tame Raj

Categories: Indian politicians | Living people | 1968 births | Marathi people | Maharashtra
politicians | Sir J. J. School of Art alumni | Maharashtra Navnirman Sena politicians
• New features
• Log in / create account
• Article
• Discussion
• Read
• Edit
• View history
Top of Form
 Bottom of Form
• Main page
• Contents
• Featured content
• Current events
• Random article
• Donate
Interaction
• Help
• About Wikipedia
• Community portal
• Recent changes
• Contact Wikipedia
Toolbox
Print/export
Languages
• िहनदी
• ಕನನಡ
• मराठी
• தமிழ்

• This page was last modified on 9 November 2010 at 16:24.

• Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;
additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-
profit organization.
• Contact us

• Privacy policy

• About Wikipedia

• Disclaimers