Delhi-based Hindustan Express in an editorial on February 14 entitled ‘Yeh Dehshatgardi Nahin!’ (Is this not terrorism!) raises sharp questions on the Maharashtra situation: was Raj Thackeray’s crime so ordinary that the court immediately released him on bail instead of keeping him in prison, did he not commit the crime of attacking the constitution of the country, rebellion against the Indian state and harming national unity and integration?... Has this person not conspired to break the country?” The paper asks if they are “not designated terrorists because their leader is Raj Thackeray and their organisation is called Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and not JKLF?”

In a page-one signed and strong editorial, Aziz Burney in Rashtriya Sahara, on February 5, has spoken of the role of industrialists — migrants from Gujarat, and Dhirubhai Ambani in particular — whose empire’s wealth has added sheen to the status of Mumbai”. Taking potshots at the Thackerays he has cited the case of several illustrious Indians who have made Mumbai their own and added to its glory.

Hyderabad-based Rahnuma-e-Deccan on February 6 writes, “Raj Thackeray is playing the same Maratha card that his uncle has been playing to make the existence of his party felt.” It recalls how recently Bal Thackeray had talked about his dream of seeing a Maratha as PM of the country and had supported Sharad Pawar as candidate. The paper says, “Bal Thackeray and Shiv Sena had supported the senior Congress leader Pratibha Patil for the post of president, merely because she has Maharashtrian connections and the regional sentiments of Marathas are satisfied to see the daughter of Maharashtra as the country’s president.”

... contd.