Politics | Rashmi Thackeray, the power behind the Thackeray empire

Rashmi Thackeray

When it comes to dynasties, the Thackerays tend to keep it more tightly in the family than do the Nehru-Gandhis. For example, take the recent appointment of Rashmi Thackeray, the wife of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, to the office of the editor of the party mouthpiece Saamana.

The Gandhis have a team of complete professionals in charge of their newspaper National Herald and do not interfere in its day-to-day functioning. Saamana, ever since its launch in the late 1980s, has always been tightly controlled by the Thackerays. First it was Bal Thackeray, then his son Uddhav Thackeray and now the latter’s wife Rashmi Thackeray.

The difference, however, is that the Saamana is the mouthpiece of the Shiv Sena as the National Herald could never be of the Congress. The Marathi paper came into its own a few years after it started during the 1992-93 riots in Mumbai (then Bombay) when it egged on Shiv Sainiks to do their worst, something for which Thackeray almost got arrested seven years later. The case, however, got time barred by then and Thackeray escaped legal action. Shiv Sainiks buy the paper dutifully even today for policy statements from their party leaders, but for actual news and world views prefer more professionally-respected papers.

While one or the other Thackeray has always been its editor, the actual running of the paper and the writing of the editorials — in perfect Thackeray style — has always been in the hands of its managing editor and party MP Sanjay Raut, known to anticipate the minds of the Thackerays, and spell out the party’s agenda with unerring instinct. He has almost never been wrong, even while taking on the BJP while the Shiv Sena was a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) member.

To that extent, although Rashmi Thackeray's appointment as editor may seemingly be a break from the male-oriented past of the party where women have had only marginal roles, her being family is of more consequence.

When Bal Thackeray had to willy-nilly set up a Mahila Aghadi in the wake of the 33 percent reservation for women in local self-government bodies, he trusted his wife Meenatai (Mina Thackeray) to lead the woman’s front, though she was as apolitical of leaders as could come. Rashmi Thackeray is rather more politically savvy, though her political ambitions, despite taking charge of the Mahila Aghadi after her mother-in-law, have been limited to realising her dreams for her husband and son — which seem to have been largely accomplished.

As far as women editors go, Rashmi Thackeray is neither the first woman editor of a Marathi newspaper — a male bastion that was breached a few years ago — nor even a woman who stepped into the family boots and took over the reins from male relatives. That credit goes to the world famous chess playing Khadilkar sisters, Jayshree and Rohini, of Navakal. When it comes to independent talent and professionalism, Rahi Bhide of Daily Punyanagari broke the glass ceiling a few years ago to emerge as the first woman editor of a Marathi newspaper on her own terms.

Does taking up the top job in the Saamana make Rashmi Thackeray a powerful female politician? Not quite. There are others, including those in her husband’s Cabinet, such as Varsha Gaikwad and Yashomati Thakur who are more clued in. Of course, Supriya Sule, the daughter of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar who could be described as the leading woman politician in Maharashtra.

Rashmi Thackeray, however, is clearly focused on her goals. Years ago she placed her ambitions to open a crystal boutique on hold because she believed growing up unchecked in the Thackeray household would open Aaditya Thackeray to influences that would lead him and his younger brother Tejas Thackeray astray. Bal Thackeray, the patriarch, was an even more powerful individual than his son Uddhav Thackeray is now, and that made all the children in the household vulnerable to influences that could not be checked by any ordinary person who would be afraid to bring any moral transgressions on their part to Thackeray's notice.

"No one will dare tell the grandchildren of Bal Thackeray what is right and what is wrong. They could grow up thinking everything they do is acceptable and with their father busy, I am the only one who can give them one tight slap and set them on the right course. What use is all the power and money in the world if your children grow up all wrong?”, she once told this author. With that kind of head on her shoulders, she made sure both her sons grew up as well rounded individuals interested in academics and sports, and with none of the vices associated with the children of the rich and powerful.

The Thackerays now have all the power they need, but they also have not just their family but also their newspaper empire in the right hands. Rashmi Thackeray will make sure of that.

Sujata Anandan is a senior journalist and author. Views are personal.