Bal Thackeray's father was already a respected journalist and had a newspaper of his own, so Bal Thackeray, like many other cartoonists, was contributing to another newspaper, he did not need to do it for a salary. And if Free Press Journal could not pay him the paper should have declined Bal Thakeray's contributions. How so you say that Thackeray family has not contributed to the community? They have given a voice to Maharashtrians in Maharashtra. Why should you grudge them a good life, which Maharashtrians have given them. I am no great admirer of Thackerays, but when people from every corner of the country were cornering every job in the city and even in the state through simple nepotism and unabashedly parochial considerations, each one bringing in a dozen of his undeserving country-cousins to so so jobs that they did not deserve, Thackerays were the family that stood up to this dishonesty. Of course, you do not read Marathi, but Marathi newspapers were full of stories of multinationals preferring matriculate outsiders to graduate Maharashtrians. Not for any other reason, but the key person in recruitment was outsider. Mumbai Telephones was full of UPians, right from linesmen to the GM. That was due to brazen parochialism. Now railways are being filled eith Biharis, thans to the Hon'ble Railway minister.
