Over the years, Shiv Sena has emerged as the party which promotes goondaism and hooliganism under the garb of being the only party which protects the ‘Marathi Manoos’. While the liberal cabal, tried its best to whitewash Sena’s image, it was only a matter of time before Sena showed its true colours. In a blatant display of hooliganism, Shiv Sena activists burned Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa’s effigy and stopped the screening of a Kannada film in Kolhapur.
Shiv Sena activists burnt an effigy of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and stopped the screening of a Kannada movie in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur city on Sunday as the dispute over Belgaum flared up once again. The state transport bus services from Kolhapur to Karnataka were also suspended from Saturday midnight as a precautionary measure, a senior police official said.
Sena activists burnt the effigy of Yeddyurappa at the central bus stand and stopped the screening of a Kannada movie at Apsara Talkies. Yuva Sena workers stormed into Apsara Theatre in Kolhapur city and halted the screening of Avane Srimannarayana, a popular Kannada film. They also issued a warning to theatre owners to desist from showing Kannada motion pictures. Several demonstrations by Sena activists against the KNS were witnessed in Sangli district as well. The activists also blackened billboards, having Kannada text, of some shopkeepers in Gandhinagar area. Sena MP Dhairyasheel Mane and former Congress MLA Satej Patil participated in the protest rally.
Belgaum was formerly part of the Bombay State, it was merged with the Mysore State (later Karnataka) at the time of the reorganisation of States in 1956. Maharashtra claims Belgaum, which has a sizeable Marathi-speaking population but is currently a district of Karnataka. Uddhav Thackeray yet again resorted to sensationalisation as he referred to Belgaum as Karnataka occupied Maharashtra. Such a distasteful comment is unbecoming of a Chief Minister as his Sena which is inherently a regional and chauvinistic party attempts to ramp up the rhetoric. Thackeray’s tasteless comments will only embolden the Sena workers as they continue to resort to hooliganism.
Recently, in Mumbai, Shiv Sena goons beat up a man and tonsured his head because he dared to crack a joke about Uddhav. A common man, Hiramani Tiwari was thrashed and had his head tonsured by ‘Shiv Sainiks’ for an anti-Uddhav post on Facebook. He had, on December 19th, posted his opinion about Uddhav Thackeray’s statement comparing police action on Jamia students to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Upon receiving threats from various quarters, he had subsequently deleted the post. Certain extremely loyal Shiv Sainiks, however, showed up at the residence of Tiwari with 25-30 men and called him out of his house. This mob was led by Sena leaders Samadhan Jukdeo and one Prakash Hasbe. In videos doing the rounds on Twitter, the two goons are seen slapping and thrashing Tiwari brutally, to the extent that the man’s medical report states that there is severe damage to his eardrum. The Sena functionaries then went on to threaten Tiwari with dire consequences if such comments were again seen being made against Uddhav Thackeray or Shiv Sena. They also claim that Uddhav Thackeray is their “God”. They then go on to malign Tiwari and berate him for being a person from North India and Delhi and yet commenting on Uddhav Thackeray. They also proudly state on camera how they have taught him a ‘lesson’ and shaved his head for berating Uddhav Thackeray.
The recent turn of events in Maharashtra is reminiscent of the heydays of Raj Thackeray and his goons as they often resorted to violence against North Indians under the garb of Maharashtra only for Marathis. It seems that the return of violence and language chauvinism is back in Maharashtra.