If Bombay is fast acquiring the reputation quite akin to the killing
fields of Bihar, the state government is losing its reputation
for efficiency equally quickly. And judging by the current pace
of the slide in the law and order situation, the city's police
commissioner may not be the only one to find himself without a
job.
The dynamics of running a cash-rich state like Maharashtra are
quite different from those of running 'normal' states. The affluence
that is on display attracts not only migrant labour, but even
excessive attention from the underworld that runs a totally parallel
economy. All talk of eliminating the parallel system can be either
attributed to naivete on the part of the person espousing
it, or that it is meant only for public consumption. Without parallel
economy, the regular economy of a wealthy state would soon wither.
What governments then do is to maintain that the overt interaction
between the two economics is kept to the minimum extent possible,
so that there is no unmanageable panic on the part of the public.
Different governments adopt different methods towards this end,
but the one we have in place is more along the lines of the erstwhile
royal patronage.
It is rather a simple method, actually. Just as we had, in medieval
times, poet laureates and the like in the royal court, each government
has its own preferences in the underworld. The latter is constantly
in a state of ferment, which is natural given that the different
gangs are constantly endeavouring to do better than the rest.
And, it is the backing of the government of the day that keeps
the balance. Or keeps the peace.
For there is actually little difference between the respective
strengths and weaknesses of the various gangs, a statement which
makes sense when you consider that all of them are fugitives from
the law. Once official support is given, then the message automatically
goes out that any abnormal activity on the part of the rest that
could damage the law and order situation, would invite retribution.
Occasionally, then, an encounter may be staged, which is
more to remind the public of the possibility of lawlessness, but
that's about it. The gangs go about their business of extortion
prostitution, etc.
But why do politicians need the gangs? Why not eliminate them
all would be the natural question. Because criminals,
in the eyes of the politicians are a necessary evil, like elections.
To fight the latter, you need to befriend the former. Seshan's
Law may have won him adulation, but elections in this country
still require more funds than sanctioned under law. Elections
require more manpower, volunteers if you please, than available.
And providing all this, once in five years, is the price the underworld
pays to be left alone.
It works, and it worked well. Different parties have different
yardsticks to choose their suitor, and these often are an extension
of the shibboleths they mouth. Thus, while one party may be soft
on a gang that may be perceived to carry clout with the minorities,
just because that is their votebank, another may carry the son
of the soil claim to the dark regions as well.
And that is the story of how Bombay keeps its wits about itself,
it has been a symbiotic relationship all the way.
Trouble seldom erupts, and does only when one of the parties refuses
to play ball. As the gangster turned politician Arun Gawli has
done, which is causing problems untold to the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya
Janata Party government in Maharashtra.
Why did he turn against the hand that had been feeding? Why did
he venture into politics, and vie for the very sections identified
with the Shiv Sena? These are questions that defy answers, in
place of which one can only surmise.
Gawli, it must be noted, is the only ganglord who is left in Bombay,
his peers-cum-rivals all being holed up in different havens
across the continent where they are apparently safe from the sleuths
of the various enforcement agencies. By remaining in Bombay, not only
is he vulnerable to attacks from his rivals, but he is also at
the mercy of the government in power And having seen the dependence
the politicians have on criminals from close quarters, naturally
he has decided to turn a disadvantage into an advantage by becoming
one of them.
The fallout of this has been twofold. One is that the present
government, which had kept the balance of force among the underworld
through him, has lost its fulcrum. The other is that he has become
a threat, in a political sense, to the very politicians he had
been supporting. The result is the bloodbath that Bombay has been
witness to of late.
The violence, too, could be the outcome of two factors. One is
that Gawli himself is resorting to this route to discredit the
government's constituents with an aim to win over that section
of the populace that has voted for it. The other is that the other
gangs, sensing that Gawli is no more the blue-eyed boy of the
administration and that it is a post that is currently vacant,
are vying for it by proving their 'mettle'.
It will take some time for the mess to sort itself out, till the
gangs sort each other out. But time is not a commodity that is
at the easy disposal of the state government, not when an inimical
combination is ruling at the Centre. If the Sena-BJP could wriggle
out of the Ghatkopar firing controversy by placing the blame on their
rivals and a trigger-happy police force, there is nowhere to turn
now. The impunity with which corpses are being produced in the
death-dance may also sound their own death-knell.
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