India, July 7 -- As the Thackeray cousins reunited after two decades on Saturday, the question on everyone's mind was: Who mediated between them? And, was the script of the reunion written by someone?

A popular conspiracy theory was that chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had something to do with the reunion. Reason: It would cut deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde to size. Several leaders from the ruling Mahayuti as well as the opposition Congress-NCP(SP) have been pointing out that the whole thing started after Fadnavis had a closed-door meeting with Raj Thackeray on June 12. Five days later, the government issued a revised GR on Hindi as third language that restarted the agitation against the decision. Thereafter, the Thackeray cousins ...