Mumbai: In May this year, Eknath Shinde – a minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government – was seen enthusiastically Promote A revered biopic of late Shiv Sena leader Anand Dighe, whom he considers his mentor.
Dighe, who died in 2001 at the age of 50, was almost the same to the people of Thane as Bal Thackeray was to the people of Mumbai.
‘ a little more than two months after the release ofDharamveer: Mukkam Post Thane‘, Dighe’s name once again resonated in the political circles of Maharashtra when Shinde stole a march on Thackeray by leading a rebellion of Shiv Sena MLAs.
While doing so, Shinde said that he was protecting Dighe and the ideology of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray.
Finally, the timely release of Dighe’s biopic – produced by Mangesh Desai under the Zee Studios banner – seems like an attempt to remind voters in Maharashtra of Dighe’s life and legacy, and how Shinde, his disciple, was a natural contender. are it.
“The biopic looks like it must have been done intentionally. The relationship between Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray today is similar to that of Anand Dighe and Bal Thackeray,” political analyst Prakash Bal told ThePrint.
“Dighe was growing too big for his shoes, and Bal Thackeray never liked him,” he said.
Thackeray of Thane
Anand Dighe is largely credited with expanding Shiv Sena’s roots to Thane and its neighboring regions, Kalyan, Dombivli, Ambernath and Bhiwandi.
“Dighe” sir First became the Thane district chief of Shiv Sena in the 1980s and spread Shiv Sena’s Hindutva ideology across the district, strengthened the party base here and won us many elections,” a former Shiv Sena councilor from Thane told ThePrint.
“Like Balasaheb, he never contested elections, but kept an eye on everything and knew the pulse of the people.”
In Thane, Dighe carved a personality for himself like Bal Thackeray in Mumbai.
Thackeray was known to keep the doors of his residence closed.Matoshree’ For anyone in need of help, Dighe used to run a public darbar every evening from his residence in Thane’s Tembi Naka, resolving grievances and settling disputes on myriad issues.
The author Thomas Blom Hansen in his 2001 book ‘Ways of Violence: Naming and Identity in Postcolonial Bombay.described Dighe’s personality in Thane as “a mythical figure to whom supernatural qualities are ascribed”.
“only in his early thirties when he took over district head, Dighe has since evolved into a type of mythological figure with supernatural attributes, including omnipresence and omnipotence. Dighe carefully evokes this image of mystery and power. He always travels around the district in his jeep and rumor has it that he never sleeps twice in the same place. Reliance-Dhirubhai Ambani Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University.
Hansen said that Dighe’s “headquarters” at Tembi Naka in central Thane “was built into a spacious reception hall, where fifty to one hundred people wait each evening to either ask for help or offer assistance or to express their thanks.” “.
Anand Dighe was arrested in 1989 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the then Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) in connection with the murder of a Shiv Sena councilor Sridhar Khopkar, who was accused of cross-voting was. Shiv Sena’s defeat in thane mayor election,
Dighe was later let go out on bail.
A decade later, Dighe was admitted to a Thane hospital with a fractured leg. Dighe, 50, died of cardiac arrest on 26 August 2001 in the same hospital.
troubled shivsena worker setting fire Parts of the hospital and vehicles parked there were vandalized, and ambulances and medical equipment were vandalized. Their anger spread on the streets and Shiv Sainiks were accused of vandalizing buses and public property to mourn their leader.
Relationship with Bal Thackeray
In May this year, during a special screening of the biopic on Dighe, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray walked away before the climax. Eknath Shinde and his MP son Shrikant Shinde were among those present at the screening.
Thackeray later told reporters that he walked out before the climax, which showed Dighe’s accident and subsequent death, as he found it “disturbing”. The then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray also recalled how his father, Bal Thackeray, was saddened after Dighe’s death.
However, towards the end of Dighe’s life, discussions of the relationship between Dighe and the Shiv Sena leadership were rapidly declining, with political circles bustling.
While Bal Thackeray did not attend Dighe’s funeral, the Shiv Sena justified his absence by saying that the party chief was requested to refrain from attending due to “security reasons”. But there was whispering about how it must have been intentional.
Political analyst Prakash Bal said that Bal Thackeray never liked Anand Dighe and his mannerisms.
He specifically referred to an incident when Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi, the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, rejecting Shiv Sena-led Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) proposes to remove T. Chandrashekhar from the post of Municipal Commissioner.
“Anand Dighe and his supporters had objected to Chandrashekhar’s demolition drive against illegal construction in Thane. Later, Bal Thackeray presided over a meeting of Dighe and other prominent Shiv Sena leaders from Thane at Mumbai’s Centaur Hotel near Santacruz airport, and told them that Chandrashekhar would stay there,” Prakash Bal said.
Shinde’s ‘Dighe Sahab’
Shiv Sena sources said Dighe groomed Eknath Shinde and helped him build his dominance.
In the biopic on Dighe, the Shiv Sena leader is shown choosing Shinde to act at a dance bar after some local residents complained to him about it during his daily darbar.
,What is Eknath? (Where is Eknath),” Dighe is shown saying his supporters are in tow, before Shinde enters on his bike. After this Shinde is seen opening hell at the dance bar.
In his first speech in the state assembly after the victory floor testMaharashtra CM Ekant Shinde broke down referring to Dighe and the latter’s role in his personal and political life.
“When I lost my two children in front of my eyes, Anand Dighe sir Gave me strength,” said a tearful Shinde, referring to the 2001 boat accident in which he lost his 11-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter.
“Who should I live for? I decided that I would live only for my Srikkanth, my wife and my parents… Dighe sir Came home five times and I told him, Now, I cannot stand again and do justice to your party. One day he called me to Tembi Naka, put his hand on my shoulder and said, Eknath, don’t say no. You have to digest your misery,” the chief minister said.
On Monday evening, Shinde – who has embraced not only Dighe’s style of work, but also his thick beard, and rings on his fingers – left Vidhan Bhavan to visit the Thackeray memorial in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park.
He then paid his respects at Dighe’s memorial in Thane before heading home for the first time since June 21, when he led Shiv Sena legislators to revolt against Thackeray.
(Edited by Amritansh Arora)
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