Shiv Sena

Little that the Shiv Sena does should come as a surprise. For years now, the party has built a base in Mumbai around its politics of thuggery. As an opposition party, it reacted to anything it disagreed with, from Valentine’s Day to editorials critiquing the party, with vandalism and violence. But over time, especially after the death of its founder Bal Thackeray and a shift in the city’s demographic profile, there was a whiff of change. Aditya Thackeray, seen as a future Sena supremo, even spoke about plans of reviving the city’s nightlife. Once saddled with power along with the BJP, you would expect more responsibility shown by the party. But in the past two weeks, Sainiks were back to their old ways.

First, they got a Ghulam Ali concert in Mumbai cancelled because of his nationality. Next, they smeared black paint on the organiser of the launch of Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri’s latest book. The person attacked, Sudheendra Kulkarni, a former aide of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, spent much of the day in front of television cameras, his face blackened by paint, defending his stance.

The party’s actions might have got it some cheap air-time, but what it also did was give Kasuri’s book Neither a Hawk Nor a Dove enormous publicity, which couldn’t have been on its agenda.

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