MUMBAI // Police commandos stood guard at the home of the ailing Mumbai politician Bal Thackeray amid concerns of violence by supporters of his Shiv Sena party, which has ruled the city for two decades with campaigns targeting migrant workers.
As Mr Thackeray's family appealed for calm, thousands of the party's followers, known as Shiv Sainiks, gathered outside his residence in the Bandra East area of Mumbai, a neighbourhood favoured by the Maharastrian families the party appealed to.
Bollywood stars, including Amitabh Bachchan, have visited Mr Thackeray's bedside.
Mr Thackeray, 86, is a Hindu-nationalist politician whose party campaigns against migrant workers and western cultural imports in Mumbai and the Indian state of Maharashtra. Shiv Sena is named after a 17th-century local hero called Shivaji, who formed a Hindu kingdom and fought off attacks by Muslim rulers.
Doctors have not given details of Mr Thackeray's illness. Reports have suggested that he is in a critical condition and on a life-support machine at his residence, while party and family members have described his condition as stable.
A former newspaper cartoonist, Mr Thackeray founded Shiv Sena in 1966. The party, which has controlled Mumbai's city government in an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata party for most of the past 20 years, evolved from Mr Thackeray's ideology that Maharashtra belonged to the local Marathi community, and argued that their interests must take precedence over those from other states.
Job and business opportunities have lured natives of other Indian states to Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra, over the years. The city, referred to as India's financial capital, is home to the country's two largest stock exchanges and some of the biggest corporate groups, including Tata Sons Ltd, which controls the biggest business group by value, and Reliance Industries Ltd, which runs the world's largest refinery complex.
Mr Thackeray, known for his aggressive writing in Saamna, the party mouthpiece, first targeted migrants from south India. Similar tactics were adopted by his nephew, Raj Thackeray, against workers from poorer north Indian states -many of them Muslims - after he split with his uncle to form his own political party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, in 2006.
Labourers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were attacked by Raj Thackeray's party in Mumbai and other districts of Maharashtra in 2008, leading to his arrest and then bail on charges of inciting violence.
Normally busy roads in Bandra were deserted yesterday with taxis and auto rickshaws asking for many times the normal rate to venture out on the streets. Police leave has been cancelled.
In February 2010, police in Mumbai arrested 1,000 Shiv Sena members after they smashed up cinemas to prevent the screening of My Name is Khan, a film that featured Shah Rukh Khan, one of Bollywood's biggest stars. Khan was targeted after he publicly regretted the absence of players from Islamic Pakistan in the world's richest cricket competition.
The party has also in the past violently opposed the celebration of Valentine's Day, saying it is not part of traditional Indian culture.
Mr Thackeray's son Uddhav now heads the Shiv Sena. The right wing party is a member of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, and the main opposition in Maharashtra state, which is ruled by the Congress party of the prime minister, Manmohan Singh.
Mr Thackeray was briefly held by police in 2000 on charges of inciting hatred against Mumbai's minority Muslim community during religious riots in 1992 and 1993. A local court dismissed the case invoking the statute of limitations, saying that the alleged crime, which took place more than seven years earlier, was too old to be proceeded with.
The view from The National
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
Iftar programme at the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding
Established in 1998, the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding was created with a vision to teach residents about the traditions and customs of the UAE. Its motto is ‘open doors, open minds’. All year-round, visitors can sign up for a traditional Emirati breakfast, lunch or dinner meal, as well as a range of walking tours, including ones to sites such as the Jumeirah Mosque or Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood.
Every year during Ramadan, an iftar programme is rolled out. This allows guests to break their fast with the centre’s presenters, visit a nearby mosque and observe their guides while they pray. These events last for about two hours and are open to the public, or can be booked for a private event.
Until the end of Ramadan, the iftar events take place from 7pm until 9pm, from Saturday to Thursday. Advanced booking is required.
For more details, email openminds@cultures.ae or visit www.cultures.ae
High profile Al Shabab attacks
- 2010: A restaurant attack in Kampala Uganda kills 74 people watching a Fifa World Cup final football match.
- 2013: The Westgate shopping mall attack, 62 civilians, five Kenyan soldiers and four gunmen are killed.
- 2014: A series of bombings and shootings across Kenya sees scores of civilians killed.
- 2015: Four gunmen attack Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya and take over 700 students hostage, killing those who identified as Christian; 148 die and 79 more are injured.
- 2016: An attack on a Kenyan military base in El Adde Somalia kills 180 soldiers.
- 2017: A suicide truck bombing outside the Safari Hotel in Mogadishu kills 587 people and destroys several city blocks, making it the deadliest attack by the group and the worst in Somalia’s history.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
The details
Heard It in a Past Life
Maggie Rogers
(Capital Records)
3/5
If you go
- The nearest international airport to the start of the Chuysky Trakt is in Novosibirsk. Emirates (www.emirates.com) offer codeshare flights with S7 Airlines (www.s7.ru) via Moscow for US$5,300 (Dh19,467) return including taxes. Cheaper flights are available on Flydubai and Air Astana or Aeroflot combination, flying via Astana in Kazakhstan or Moscow. Economy class tickets are available for US$650 (Dh2,400).
- The Double Tree by Hilton in Novosibirsk ( 7 383 2230100,) has double rooms from US$60 (Dh220). You can rent cabins at camp grounds or rooms in guesthouses in the towns for around US$25 (Dh90).
- The transport Minibuses run along the Chuysky Trakt but if you want to stop for sightseeing, hire a taxi from Gorno-Altaisk for about US$100 (Dh360) a day. Take a Russian phrasebook or download a translation app. Tour companies such as Altair-Tour ( 7 383 2125115 ) offer hiking and adventure packages.
