Balasaheb Thackeray no more

Bal Keshav Thackeray, founder of Shiv Sena and one of Maharashtra’s most iconic and divisive figures, died on Saturday 17th November 2012 after weeks of ill-health. Thackeray, 85, was seriously ill since Wednesday when his blood pressure plunged and he lost consciousness.
“He suffered a cardio-respiratory arrest today. We could not revive him despite our best efforts. He breathed his last at 3.33pm,” said pulmonologist Dr Jalil Parkar, who was the Sena chief's doctor for the last five years and was by his bedside till the end. In his last days, Thackeray received round-the-clock attention from a battery of Mumbai’s best doctors.
Thackeray is survived by sons Jaidev and Uddhav, who is executive president of the party. News of his demise was followed by an appeal from Uddhav to restive cadres, requesting them to maintain calm. However, the city of Mumbai and its suburbs had already begun shutting down in anticipation of trouble.
The post-Thackeray phase marks a new era in Maharashtra’s politics and heightens speculation about the strategies the Sena would need to adopt in the absence of its principal crowd-puller. For over four decades, Thackeray had dominated the stage, courting controversy with a blend of regional chauvinism and cultural aggression, and punctuating it with biting, if often crude, humour through editorials in his mouthpiece Saamna.
On the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Thackeray famously said, “If Shiv Sainiks have done it, I am proud of them.” Thackeray was the eldest son of writer-crusader K S Thackeray, also known as Prabodhankar, for he edited a periodical called Prabodhan (Renaissance). Beginning his career as a cartoonist in the 1950s, he plunged into a nascent statehood movement for Maharashtra.

The Shiv Sena is keen that a memorial to Sena supremo Bal Thackeray be built at Shivaji Park at the same place where he was cremated, it is learned. Mantralaya and civic sources said the Sena had asked not only for Thackeray’s cremation to be held at Shivaji Park but also that a memorial be set up for him. There is already a statue of Meenatai Thackeray at the entrance to the park.
The turnout at Bal Thackeray’s funeral on Sunday was one of the largest witnessed in post-Independence India. While estimates varied wildly from a conservative two lakh to an eye-popping two million, there was no denying that the numbers of those who witnessed or accompanied the cortege put the Sena supremo in the august company of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Indira Gandhi and Annadurai.
The procession, which started from Matoshree at 9.20am, took nearly 7 hours to cover the 7 km stretch to Shivaji Park.
The last rites began at 5.50 pm. Uddhav lit the pyre at 6.15 pm and the crowd dispersed half-an-hour later.