Alarming intolerance

Alarming intolerance

Raj Thackeray has been at his intolerant best. He is reported to have branded Biharis coming to Mumbai as infiltrators and threatened to send them back to Bihar if the Bihar government dared launch an inquiry into the Mumbai police's actions in connection with the recent Azad Maidan meeting. Obviously Raj Thackeray does not know that under our Constitution, every citizen has a fundamental right to reside and work in any part of India. Apparently our Constitution means mighty little to an extra constitutional authority whose minions forcibly prevented the screening of a Bhojpuri film in a theatre in Mumbai. Raj Thackeray had recently issued a warning to celebrated Maharashtrian artiste Asha Bhosle not to share space with artists from Pakistan on musical reality show Sur-Kshetra. The twisted logic for this warning, rather the threat, is that the Pakistan government is engaging in terror strikes against India. Pray, how are the Pakistani artistes in any way involved in the alleged terror strikes? The dictator has relented after his meeting with filmmaker Boney Kapoor, with a warning that his party will not allow this in future. The alarming part is the legitimacy and strength which Raj Thackeray has acquired thanks to the pathetic inaction of the law enforcement authorities.

Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee suffers from a pathological hatred of any sign of criticism. Cartoonists depicting her are jailed, a person who posed a question at a meeting where the Chief Minister was present is dubbed a Maoist and is prosecuted. The latest instance of intolerance is the raid by the city police of the office of Mitra and Ghosh Publishers and their demand that copies of Musalmander Koronio (What Muslims should do) written by Nazrul Islam, the Additional Director General (Training) of the State police, be immediately handed over coupled with threat of arrest in event of non-compliance. Apparently, Raj Thackeray and Mamata Banerjee are kindred souls. Regrettably, intolerance has become an infection. Witness the recent treatment meted out to Sri Lankan sportspersons by the Jayalalithaa government in Tamil Nadu.

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