Why are we all in such a lather about Raj Thackeray? I mean, for a country well used to tearing its flimsy social fabric apart, we seem to be getting unnecessarily hot under the collar. This week, ‘cosmopolitan’ Bombay was ‘outraged’ by Raj’s vow to terrorise shops and businesses into displaying Marathi signboards, a self-styled “diktat” that is neither civil, legal nor constitutional. (By the way, since when has that stopped our leaders?). And earlier this year, Parliament was adjourned in a rare display of accord as angry MPs from the BJP, the BSP and the Janata Dal condemned his xenophobic crusade against North Indians as “a threat to national unity.”

Really? Correct me if I’m wrong, but if the politics of prejudice has always been institutionalised in this country, and its official architect is none other than BJP. In fact, ever since the riots that followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid, cosmopolitan Bombay has become Mumbai, a city of communal ghettos. Meanwhile, the Janata Dal and the BSP have worked tirelessly to partition India on caste lines. And, with a quota policy that makes the Manusmriti sound egalitarian, the Congress hasn’t done too badly either.

Which is why the list of those who want Raj booked under Section 153 -A of the Indian Penal Code for “attempting to disturb communal harmony” is interesting, to say the least : LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Ashok Singhal and Uma Bharati, all noteworthy North Indians who have been booked under the same section. (Pssst : in case you’re wondering, not one of them has been convicted). So xenophobia has always flourished in the subcontinental soil of bigotry, the neta’s tried-and-tested tool of ‘divide to rule’. So why blame only Raj?

... contd.