Monday, October 12, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
POLITICS-INDIA: Move to Arrest Hindu Leader Sparks Tension
Ranjit Devraj
- Passions were running high in the bustling port city of Mumbai Friday, after the Congress party government in western Maharashtra state said it would arrest the city’s ‘godfather’ Bal Thackeray for making hate speeches directed at minority Muslims.
Thackeray, who sports the saffron robes and prayer beads of a Hindu holy man and leads the fanatical Shiv Sena (God’s Army), called at a religious rally on Tuesday for the formation of Hindu suicide squads to take on Islamic ‘jihadists’.
”At a time when even temples are not safe and the government is failing to fight terrorism, the only way out is for suicide squads of Hindus to fight Islamic terrorism,” Thackeray said.
His reference was to the Sep. 24 ‘jihadist’ attack on the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar, capital of adjoining Gujarat state, in which two well-armed militants mowed down 31 people including three commandos before being shot dead.
”It is easy to talk of law and order but this is a question of life and death. Are Hindus ready to make the supreme sacrifice?” Thackeray demanded to know at the rally and in an article that later appeared in the ‘Saamna’ (Confrontation), a newspaper he publishes.
On Thursday, police in Mumbai registered a criminal case against Thackeray on charges of promoting enmity between groups on the grounds of religion or race, which under Indian law is a non-bailable offence and attracts a three-year prison term.
”We are demanding legal action against Thackeray and that means arrest,” said Congress party spokesman Jaipal Reddy.
But leaders of the Shiv Sena and its close ally the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the ruling coalition at the central government, were quick to label the move to arrest Thackeray as an act of political vendetta on the part of the Congress party, which swears by secularism.
”We will take to the streets,” said Sanjay Nirupam, prominent Shiv Sena member in the Rajya Sabha or upper house of Parliament.
The last time moves were made to arrest Thackeray on similar charges was in 1999, soon after the Congress party-led Democratic Front came to power in Maharashtra after defeating the Shiv Sena-BJP government in the state.
At that time, Thackeray threatened to set Mumbai on fire – but allowed himself to be arrested for a token one hour after arriving in court surrounded by thousands of his supporters.
A cautious judge dismissed that case on technical grounds. But Thackeray was disenfranchised for six years by the Election Commission for appealing to religious sentiments during election campaigns. On Thursday, the BJP’s spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi called the case against Thackeray ”dangerous” and part of a design by the Congress party- led Democratic Front government in Maharashtra to ”link terrorism with religion for political gain”.
However, the BJP’s general secretary and prominent lawyer, Arun Jaitley, reflected simmering differences between the Shiv Sena and the BJP when he said that ”one kind of terrorism need not persuade us to believe that another kind can be the answer”.
Thackeray, who rules the Shiv Sena that he founded with an iron hand, recently recalled from the central Cabinet Power Minister Suresh Prabhu, jeopardising the sweeping reforms the former minister had initiated in the key sector.
The Shiv Sena supremo has also been critical of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s moderate approach in dealing with neighbouring Pakistan. He has repeatedly called for military strikes at militant camps across the border that are believed to train suicide squads for attacks in disputed Kashmir state and other parts of India.
In his Oct. 15 speech, Thackeray demanded that control over the army be handed over to him so that he might lead defence against militant attacks that New Delhi alleges is backed by Pakistan as part of state policy.
Thackeray’s Shiv Sena played a key role in the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid, a 16th century mosque built in Ayodhya in central Uttar Pradesh state, allegedly over a temple which marked the birthplace of the Hindu warrior god Rama.
That demolition led to rioting across northern India, but was concentrated in Mumbai where Shiv Sena followers led attacks on Muslims and their properties. This was recorded by the Srikrishna Commission that investigated the violence in the city, earlier known for its secular, cosmopolitan outlook.
The report of the Srikrishna Commission was suppressed by the BJP/Shiv Sena government that was elected to power in1995 and ‘remote-controlled’ by Thackeray.
Among the more controversial decisions made by the Shiv Sena/ BJP government was approval for the U.S. power giant Enron Corp, of its stalled 2,000-megawatt power project in Maharashtra four days after a visit to Thackeray’s residence by Enron executive Rebecca Mark.
The Shiv Sena/BJP government was defeated in the 1999 state elections and the successor Congress-led government is sworn to book those indicted by the Srikrishna Commission in fulfillment of poll promises.
Meanwhile, Thackeray’s ‘above-the-law’ style of politics has served as a model for other pro-Hindu leaders, especially the BJP chief minister of western Gujarat, Narendra Modi, who ordered a program against Muslims earlier this year that left at least 2,000 people dead and more than 100,000 homeless. Like Thackeray, Modi stayed in power in spite of the fact that the statutory National Human Rights Commission led other groups and civil rights groups in indicting him for the pogrom.
The international human rights group Amnesty International called this month for a stop to hate speeches in Gujarat.
Amnesty noted that at a press conference on Oct 11, Ashok Singhal, chief of the Vishwa Hndu Parishad (World Hindu Forum) that is closely affiliated to the BJP, called the pogrom in Gujarat a ”successful experiment which will be repeated across the country”.
Vajpayee has publicly disapproved of the hate speeches made by leaders of his party and its affiliates, but seems powerless in the face of the fact that the BJP owes its rise to power to a fundamentalist wave generated by the campaign to demolish the Babri Masjid.
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POLITICS-INDIA: Move to Arrest Hindu Leader Sparks Tension
Ranjit Devraj
- Passions were running high in the bustling port city of Mumbai Friday, after the Congress party government in western Maharashtra state said it would arrest the city’s ‘godfather’ Bal Thackeray for making hate speeches directed at minority Muslims.
(more…)
Print
|
POLITICS-INDIA: Move to Arrest Hindu Leader Sparks Tension
Ranjit Devraj
- Passions were running high in the bustling port city of Mumbai Friday, after the Congress party government in western Maharashtra state said it would arrest the city’s ‘godfather’ Bal Thackeray for making hate speeches directed at minority Muslims.
(more…)
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|
