Temporary Winners

IT is not for the first time that the Mumbai police has served a notice to the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief, Mr Raj Thackeray for a provocative speech, this time warning multiplex owners to screen Marathi movies at prime time or get ready to face MNS wrath.

Before this incident the Mumbai police had slapped notices on him for his remarks against migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. During the last two years, Mr Thackeray has received numerous legal notices and summons and these have failed to deter him from spitting venom. Will the Mumbai police inform us about the follow-up actions? Rather than doing him any harm, the notices and summons have only boosted his glory and political appeal. Every time Mr Thackeray is served with a notice seeking to refrain him from "committing a cognisable offence in future", he prefers to indulge more in such activity. He has come to know that this is the best short-cut route to attain fame and popularity. What is ironical is that the Mumbai police has only been abetting his designs. In the past Jharkhand courts had issued summons to the Mumbai police to present him before them. But on each occasion it failed. It succumbed to the legal and political pressures of Mr Thackeray. Will the Mumbai police tell what actions it had initiated in concrete terms against the MNS vandals who were found to be involved in looting and beating innocent persons? They did nothing to deter them from pursuing their hate campaign and goondaism. This is why despite notices and summons MNS workers have been carrying on their violence. Mr Raj Thackeray, much like his uncle and mentor, Mr Balasaheb Thackeray, has been working in vain to destroy the great and thriving culture of diversity that the port and commercial city of Mumbai has developed through history. They are never going to succeed, though they might look temporarily like winners from the fear they stir up among the Marathi manoos.