Bal Thackeray: An era ends - NewsX

Bal Thackeray's politics was different from that of others. He did not need hired crowds, he did not need spokespersons, and he did not need to explain what he wanted. When he delivered an aadesh it was acted upon, the followers delivered on it pronto. By his own admission and popular acclaim, he was a dictator who publicly admired German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. But for him, Maharashtra would not have had a bipolar polity, with the Congress and its ilk ranged against him on one side; he literally provided the alternative, even if in the Right, giving voice and substance to the dreams of the counter-elite: those who aspired but did not want to walk with the Congress or be ignored by it.

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