When Shinde Sena MLA spewed a ‘South' slur

India Today

5 days ago

(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated July 28, 2025)Anti-South Indian politics was the very first drum roll with which the Shiv Sena arrived on the stage of modern Indian politics. It clearly still has some juice left, judging by the curious way it made a fresh entry into the headlines—as an afterthought to a thoughtless act tailor-made for endless TV. The protagonist was Sanjay Gaikwad, an Eknath Shinde Sena MLA whose nature, by all accounts, resembles a typical Mumbai weather report: torrential, always with chances of strong thunder. This particular downpour started after a video surfaced of Gaikwad, clad in a vest and a towel around his waist, punching a hapless staffer at the MLA hostel at Nariman Point.advertisementFRESH HEADACHE FOR SHINDEIf anything, the issue has ended up becoming a blow to an already beleaguered Shinde, who finds himself increasingly cornered in the ruling Mahayuti alliance. The BJP is being adequately caustic about the deputy CM's inability to control his men, reviving the frequent characterisation of his Sena as a loose coalition of MLAs rather than a political party with a structure of command and internal checks and balances. The episode was shambolic enough to merit such a broad-brush taint.
In the video, Gaikwad, a second-term MLA from Buldhana in Vidarbha, is seen forcing a hostel employee to sniff dal in a carrybag, before punching him. The staffer at the Akashwani MLA hostel, right opposite Mantralaya in south Mumbai, falls. Gaikwad claims his fists of fury were goaded by poor quality dal and stale food, alleging that the canteen management is a repeat offender. The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later inspected the canteen and suspended its licence.
Under fire for his lack of restraint, Gaikwad went on to burnish that point with a verbal volley on 'the attitude of people from the South'. The said community, he said, 'operated dance bars and ladies bars in Maharashtra' and 'ruined its culture and youth'. His pique apparently originates with the canteen contractor, said to be a Shetty from Karnataka. The recourse to nativist vocabulary was a transparent attempt to deflect focus from his own misdemeanour, and its effect is minimised by the fact that the speaker has earned some renown as an equal opportunity offender.Days earlier, he had made disparaging remarks about Chhatrapati Sambhaji, for which he had to apologise. In May, Gaikwad lashed out at the Maharashtra police, calling it 'the most inefficient police department in India and the world', with a compulsive penchant for 'hafta (extortion)' to boot. That had made even CM Devendra Fadnavis see red. Last September, Gaikwad offered Rs 11 lakh to anyone who would 'chop off the tongue' of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. He also claimed to have killed a tiger and worn its tooth as a pendant. When AIMIM MP Imtiaz Jaleel criticised Gaikwad for his canteen exploits, he threatened to assault Jaleel too.advertisementShinde is said to have upbraided Gaikwad. After three days of Opposition protests, Fadnavis stepped in and a suo moto non-cognisable case was filed by the Marine Drive police. But the man remains defiant for now.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- EndsMust Watch