Opinion Alarming intolerance

Raj Thackeray has been at his intolerant best.

Soli J. Sorabjee

September 9, 2012 01:30 AM IST First published on: Sep 9, 2012 at 01:30 AM IST

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 polices 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.

Hypersensitive reaction

A recent article in The Washington Post,which was sharply critical of our Prime Minister,provoked our Information Minister Ambika Soni to say that she will take the matter up with the MEA for necessary action against the paper. It is forgotten that The Washington Post is not a government paper. The US government has no role to play in the management of the paper and the least about the articles carried by it in view of the guarantee of freedom of the press in the US Bill of Rights. The PMO has called Simon Denyer,the writer of the article,unethical on the ground that he did not contact the PMO for its version and that the article is one-sided. Denyer has denied these charges. The crux of the matter is that why are we so hypersensitive about what The Washington Post says about India and our Prime Minister? Are the Prime Ministers authority and image so brittle that they cannot withstand ill-founded criticism? The appropriate course should be a strong rejoinder rebutting statements,wherever possible,in the Post article. Surely we can take The Washington Post and its articles in our stride. All said and done,who is afraid of The Washington Post?

Much-talking judge

Francis Bacons famous quip that a much-talking judge is like an ill-tuned cymbal was vindicated by Karnataka High Court Judge K Bhaktavatsala who reportedly told a young woman lawyer when hearing a matrimonial case that she was unfit to argue the matter because she was unmarried. The irrepressible judge further declared that family matters should be argued only by married people,not spinsters. On this bizarre logic,lawyers are unfit to argue cases involving liquor unless they are either teetotalers or drunkards. Women rights group are understandably perturbed and communications have been addressed to the Chief Justice of India who incidentally is not an ombudsman nor an overall disciplinary authority to deal with much talking errant judges unless the matter reaches him via the judicial route.