Thread-MH episode: Apolitical fool’s observations.
1)Media:4th pillar of democracy, is playing it‘s role very well.Antonio Gramsci, neo-Marxist giant, claimed that in a state where well developed media, pressure groups exist, communist revolution is harder to bring about. Eg.USA.

Such states were termed as opaque states by Gramsci. 24*7 running TV news channels create a false impression of transparency & feed propaganda to public. So, real issues like COVID, unemployment, economic decline miss the public eye. Beneficiaries are both state & central govt.

Media hides the true nature of the state. People lose focus on real issue that matter and elite interests are safeguarded. All of a sudden, non-issues like SSR, Rhea, Kangana and ever present Bollywood-drug mafia connection have taken the centre stage.

2)Kangana: Kangana represents several possibilities. First, she is acting independently, on her own acccord, for fame & possible pursuit of power. Ever since the release of Manikarnika, her ambition for power has not been hidden from anyone.

Kangana likes to act independently. No friends in the Bollywood elite. Trusts only her sister. She tries to write the script, act, direct the movies, all by herself. One can recall the ugly dispute with Manikarnika director Krish over directiorial credits.

She insists on doing movies only where she acts as the lead. Especially movies with a strong protagonist. Like Manikarnika or biopic on Jayalalithaa. Ambition is clearly visible. Current PM of India is her idol. Same person who always took pompous roles in plays in his childhood.

In short,authoritarianism & lust for power or what St.Augutine of Hippo called as ‘Libido Dominandi‘ is ingrained in her.BJP-RSS refuse to intervene in her power projection & infact aid her, in this scenario.Why?They see her as a viable political candidate,in MH or in the hills.

Second scenario, rise of Sonu Sood.This man’s generosity was suspected by many as a politically planted move.With passage of time, it is becoming clearer that it indeed was a ploy, possibly by Congress.BJP is trying to pitch another actor to dethrone Sood’s new found popularity.

Major impact of Sood’s actions was seen on migrants from Bihar. With the upcoming elections in Bihar, BJP is further drumming up the SSR case to gain sympathy among the demographically young state of Bihar. Kangana is only a tool to serve the cause of voter mobilisation.

Third scenario, Kangana is only being used by both Shiv Sena as well as the BJP to divert attention from their own respective governance failures. She will disappear from the national scene as fast as Anna Hazare did, after completing his job of dethroning Congress from power.

3)Future of Shiv Sena: The day Shiv Sena allied with Congress, it had done considerable damage to it‘s future Hindutva pitch. Reform of party ideology has been Aditya Thackeray’s main political plank. It remains to be seen where he would steer the party in future.

But the whole SSR case and it’s collateral damage has been bad PR for Shiv Sena. The case has been blown out of proportion and MVA partners have totally gone into the shadows, leaving the leadership alone to bear the brunt of public criticism.

In case 3 scenario mentioned for Kangana, it won’t be a surprise if SS again goes back to BJP & Hindutva agenda in future. BJP, afaik, remains open to an alliance with SS so we cannot discount this possibility. India only has catch-all parties, they care for power, not ideology.

4)Power: It is the motivating factor behind all actors maintaining high visibility. Be it Kangana, SS, BJP, Arnab, Xioami. All are being hypocrites at some level, ready to throw others under the bus. As Frank Underwood said, road to power is paved with hypocrisy & casualties.

5)What will happen: SSR‘s death case will never be resolved. Main players behind drug trade will never be apprehended. Politicians will remain unscathed. Bwood will undergo a great churn. We will have to wait & watch what changes happen in national or regional politics.

I would like to end this with the wise words of a wise man for the wise people of this wise nation.