Bal Thackeray’s newspapers sport black front pages

 

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray‘s favourite newspapers, Saamna (in Marathi) and Dopahar Ka Saamna (in Hindi), were published with a full black cover jacket and a full black cover page Sunday.

Thackeray, who passed away Saturday, was the founder-editor of both the newspapers, though the day-to-day affairs were managed by his hand-picked and trusted executive editors... Click Here

Thackeray shared strong bond with his Muslim physician

He was considered a right-wing Hindu leader — but Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray, who died Saturday, had full faith in a Muslim doctor, who was treating him for the last four years.

One might never to able to solve the mystery as to why Thackeray trusted his family’s health on Jalil Parkar, but the meticulous chest physician ensured that the trust was never broken.

In 2009, when Thackeray had severe breathing difficulty, it was this doctor, trained in the United States, who came to his aid and over a period of time became a permanent visitor to Matoshri — the Thackeray residence.

Even as Thackeray headed a party known for its right-wing Hindu nationalist views, Parkar never complained of any religious biases. He in fact said Thackeray was one of the kindest souls he had interacted with... Read More

Bal Thackeray: The tiger roars no more

 

http://www.andhrareporter.com/andhra-latest-news/12208-bal-thackeray-the-tiger-roars-no-more

You loved him, you hated him, but you never could ignore him. That was Bal Keshav Thackeray, a fierce proponent of Hindu supremacism in a secular India who built his chauvinistic politics around the emotive cause of regional pride of 112 million people of Maharashtra, the country's most industrialised state and home to its world renowned film and entertainment industry. He was 86.

Views on Bal Thackeray, known as Balasaheb, were as polarised as the politics he practiced. Known for his caustic tongue, he was idolised by his followers in the Shiv Sena and scorned in equal measure by liberal and secular Indians for his communal, divisive politics that didn't stop with radical expression of views against Muslims and violent action against those opposed to his extreme righwing ideas - including being firmly opposed to the visit of the Pakistani cricket team to India.

The cartoonist turned politician was often portrayed as a roaring tiger, the much cherished logo of his party Shiv Sena, which he formed to accord dignity to Maharashtrians but which became known as a party of restless youngsters out for trouble. He was a demogogue whose strong views polarised the polity at the state and the national level, but he never flinched from expressing himself with conviction despite opposition.

The posterboy of rightwing Hindu and Marathi chauvinism, he never plunged into electoral politics and never contested any polls. He never made it to the national stage either but remained an active, acidic voice, commenting on any and every issue through the party mouthpiece Saamna...
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