Sachin

Mumbai, Nov. 22: The Shiv Sena targeted Sachin Tendulkar’s credentials as a Maharashtrian again today, drawing a counter-attack on the party from a BCCI official that the board quickly distanced itself from.

Sanjay Raut, Sena MP and executive editor of party mouthpiece Saamna, wrote that Sourav Ganguly was a proud Bengali but Sachin Tendulkar was not a true Maharashtrian.

Sunil Gavaskar is a “genuine Maharashtrian” because he helped Marathi cricketers get into the national squad, Raut said, citing the example of two Mumbai players whose Test selection in 1982 had sparked a huge controversy about regional bias and favouritism.

Raut’s article in Saamna came days after the newspaper published an open letter, purportedly written by Sena chief Bal Thackeray, accusing Tendulkar of hurting Marathi sentiments with his “Mumbai-belongs-to-all” comment.

BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla, a Congress Rajya Sabha MP, was quick to hit back. “By attacking Sachin Tendulkar, the Shiv Sena is only reducing its own vote bank. The Marathi people are not liking Sena’s criticism of their icon,” he said.

The board, however, issued a media release saying Shukla’s reactions had come “in his individual capacity, and not on behalf of the BCCI”.

The release probably reflects the board’s reluctance to get into a political controversy rather than any support for the Sena. It’s not clear which part of Shukla’s comments the board was disowning, but it could be the reference to the Sena vote bank since that is an out-and-out political matter.

Raut’s article was a study in parochialism. “Players like Sachin have become rich because of the game of cricket. Sachin’s wealth has crossed Rs 200 crore. We expect Sachin to be ‘proud’ of Maharash- tra as Sourav Ganguly is of Bengal. Rahul Dravid too is a Marathi player, but he is loyal to Karnataka,” the MP wrote.

He added: “There has been no instance of Sachin extending a helping hand to other Marathi cricketers. Forget others, he did not even support (childhood friend) Vinod Kambli.”

Kambli had said at a reality show that Sachin had not helped him after he was dropped from the Indian team, but later blamed the show for creating a “misunderstanding” between friends.

“In contrast, when he captained India, Gavaskar had half the team drawn from Mumbai and Maharashtra. He gave Test caps to many Marathi players including Suru Nayak and Zulfiqar Parkar at least for one match,” Raut wrote.

Zulfiqar Parkar never played for India; Raut’s reference would have been to Nayak and Ghulam Parkar, who were chosen for the 1982 England tour ahead of players like Mohinder Amarnath. Gavaskar, then captain, was widely held responsible for the selections and was heavily criticised even before both his alleged picks failed miserably.

“In this context, Gavaskar is a genuine Maharashtrian and the whole country loves him even now in the same way,” Raut added.

Congress leader Digvijay Singh pooh-poohed the Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena rhetoric on Maharashtrian pride, questioning the roots of Bal Thackeray and his nephew Raj. “Both came to Mumbai as migrants,” he told reporters.

Yesterday, Saamna had justified the attack on the offices of Network 18 news channels IBN Lokmat and IBN 7 by a group of Sena activists. The Sena chief had been criticised on an IBN Lokmat programme on the Thackeray-Tendulkar controversy.

Raut’s younger brother Sunil is the prime accused in the vandalism and has gone into hiding.