Some of the recent incidents in Maharashtra show that the government do not have a grip on the law and order situation in the state and that those in power have wrong priorities.
It was shocking to hear Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the home portfolio, state in the Legislative Assembly that the violence in Nagpur was pre-planned. If it was pre-planned, it shows the utter failure of the home ministry and the police in taking appropriate action to prevent the violence in a city that had remained protected from communal violence all these years.
In light of the hate speeches made by members of the Mahayuti, the ruling alliance in the state, including ministers, even a schoolchild could have said the violence was bound to erupt. The home ministry failed in Nagpur, just as it failed in Badlapur, Beed, Kolhapur, to name a few, to take appropriate and timely action. A similar failure was seen in Mumbai, where the police failed to protect the studio where stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra used to record his shows.
After the reaction of a section of the public against Kamra’s show, the police should have anticipated an attack on any or all his locations and should have taken steps to give them protective cover.
Kamra should be thankful to the nincompoops belonging to the Eknath Shinde Shiv Sena for carrying forward his message, which he had not spelt out. Television channels also played the video repeatedly, which egged on the Shinde supporters to attack all the channels.
Though Kamra has a sizeable following, there were still a large number of people who had not even heard of him till the Shinde supporters protested over a song written and sung by him in his show. The song mentioned an (auto)rickshawala from Thane with a beard and wearing spectacles and termed him a gaddar (betrayer).
The intelligent followers of the honourable Deputy Chief Minister, Eknath Shinde, were quick to realise that the bearded rickshawala mentioned in the song was none other than their supreme leader, Shinde. They knew that Shinde is called the betrayer but do not take pride in their leader being called a rickshawala, which he was when he entered politics, unlike the followers of Narendra Modi, who take pride in calling him a chaiwala.
It was indeed humourous to hear a Shinde supporter, who threatened Kamra over the phone, asking him how to come to Tamil Nadu, where Kamra was at the time of the call, to thrash the comedian. The caller insulted Marathi while abusing Kamra. He used only two or three foul words, which would make many feel that Marathi has a limited stock of such words. The Shinde Shiv Sena must hold an orientation class for such elements so that they can put up a better show at what they are good at. One needs to have some basic intelligence in reacting to the work of comedians because they have the knack to find humour in every situation. Kamra had to tell the caller that he could come to Tamil Nadu by train.
Minister of State for Home Yogesh Kadam has put his foot in his mouth once again. This time, while reacting to the Kunal Kamra issue, he enlightened the people of the state that the Constitution states that one cannot criticise a person holding a constitutional post; maybe he was referring to the party’s constitution and not to India’s.
For the benefit of those who heard Kamra’s song and did not realise that it was an oblique reference to Eknath Shinde, Chief Minister Fadnavis came to their aid by announcing in the state legislature, and through it to the world at large, that Kamra had insulted Shinde in the name of humour through his show.
Fadnavis showed that he is not true to the oath of the office that he took, under which he is supposed to act without fear and favour and in a non-partisan manner. He exhibited double standards when it came to dealing with those indulging in violence. In the case of the victims of the violence in Nagpur, he said that the cost of the damages to the property of the victims would be recovered from the perpetrators of the crime, but he did not say a word about recovering the cost of the damage to the studio from Shinde’s supporters, who damaged it.
Fadnavis did not condemn the violence by the Shiv Sainiks or the threats issued to Kamra. As the head of the government, that is the least that was expected of him. The violence has not been condemned by the two deputy chief ministers, Shinde and Ajit Pawar, either.
The reaction of the Shinde supporters to the Kamra video and their silence over the same statement by Ajit Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray and many others show that they do not have the courage to fight the politically strong.
They swear by Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, who was a great cartoonist, but they cannot tolerate humour against their idols. The worst is they are silent on the dethroning of Thackeray from the title of Hinduhruday Samrat. Banners have been put up outside legislator Anil Parab’s house declaring Nitesh Rane as the Hinduhruday Samrat. For them, Shinde is more important than Thackeray. Just as Shinde is more important than even Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, given their silence on the insults showered on the Maratha king by the then Maharashtra Governor, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, or by Prashant Koratkar.
This is so because Eknath Shinde is more honourable than Brutus.
The author is a senior journalist and media trainer. He tweets at @a_mokashi
