Rabid parochialism is stock fodder for demagogues. When Raj Thackery attacks Bachchan family he is actually going for maximum eyeballs. Bachchans are soft targets because they do not have the destructive potential of withdrawal, at the same time they bring in maximum media mileage and people like Raj, who are on the fringe of political oblivion desperately seeking a captive constituency, seek precisely this. Attacking Tatas or Ambanis or such men of their ilk, who are equally outsiders and most likely do not speak Marathi have a lot of destructive potential therefore are left alone. Bengal has already seen the repercussions of Tata’s threat of withdrawal from Singur.
Will these political rabble rousers survive in the long term! Are they like the pop music, flavor of the season and will loose their sheen gradually and fade away. I don’t think so, Bal Thackery has survived long enough, so has Thallavi Jayalalitha and so on. As long as people seek simplistic solutions("make me a dictator and I will set the world right"), without going into nitty-gritty of their implications, there will always be space for Hitler like demagogues and people will pay the price for their novice and ignorance.
