Mumbai: The Shiv Sena and the BJP are strange bedfellows. They rub each other on the wrong side ever so often and it is clear that there is no love lost between the leaders of the two parties, but they still share power essentially out of political compulsions though with disgruntlement writ large. The latest cold vibes are on the Narendra Modi government’s first anniversary in the saddle in Delhi. BJP leaders are piqued that Shiv Sena leaders have not congratulated them on the anniversary.
Significantly, the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna carried a newsreport of Modi’s Mathura rally below the fold on the front page, which has been interpreted by political pundits as a rebuff. The paper rushes with an editorial comment on much less momentous occasions but in its issue of Tuesday, May 26, Saamna did not choose to comment editorially on the anniversary of the Modi government. There was not even a congratulatory message to the Prime Minister from Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray for completing one year in office. The Central government’s Directorate of Audio-Visual Publicity which releases government advertisements to various newspapers and periodicals on government account strangely did not issue the Prime Minister’s open letter to the citizens for use in Saamna until late at night by which time it was too late for it to be used. Whether it was a woeful lack of communication between the BJP and Shiv Sena or a deliberate snub from the Shiv Sena bosses because of BJP’s delay in releasing the advert is anybody’s guess. What the whole episode reinforced was the huge communication gap between the two so-called allies.
This is not the first occasion when the strains are visible. Shiv Sena has nursed a grouse against the BJP for including only one Sena minister in the Union council of ministers and for giving him what it regards as an insignificant portfolio of minister of state for heavy industry. Even on the Jaitapur power plant, the Centre cleared the project even though Shiv Sena was vehemently opposed to it. On Prime Minister Modi’s foreign trips and the signing of momentous agreements, the Shiv Sena has shown scant appreciation, be it trips to the US, Japan, China, Australia or to any other country. With the BJP perpetually falling short of numbers to support important legislation in the Rajya Sabha, the Shiv Sena has been a most unreliable ally. Likewise, the BJP too has rubbed it in that on many things it is not on the same page as Shiv Sena. Where all this would lead to is a matter of speculation.`