Why does “collective conscience” take a holiday when it comes to the victims of riots orchestrated to further the cause of majoritarian politics? The rage generated by the hanging of Yakub Memon for the 1993 Bombay bombings will not die down anytime soon. While some continue with the chest thumping, others decry the barbarity of capital punishment.
"The cover story in Tehelka's latest issue, "Who Is The Biggest Terrorist Of Them", showed the image of Thackeray alongside Yakub Memon, Dawood and Bhindranwale... Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on Saturday submitted a complaint to the police against the news magazine Tehelka, seeking criminal action for their recent cover story. The Shivaji Park police made a station diary entry based on a complaint filed by Bala Nandgaonkar against the article carried by the magazine, which equated Bal Thackeray with Dawood Ibrahim and Yakub Memon!
"The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) today directed Maharashtra Government to pay Rs 50,000 each to the two girls who were arrested over a Facebook post after the death of Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray, saying their detention was "illegal". According to a statement released today, the Commission has held that the detention of the girls was in violation of freedom of speech and expression of views guaranteed in the Constitution and asked the state to pay the compensation or face "coercive" action.
"Tension prevailed in Pune, after an angry mob went on rampage in the town over morphed pictures of the late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackery, Chhatrapati Shivaji and other Hindu gods which were shared on Facebook on Saturday, and later re-circulated on WhatsApp, according to reports in the Indian Express and Hindustan Times. A Muslim IT professional, who was no in way connected to the circulation of the pictures, was attacked by the mob and killed, say the news reports.
"Soon after killing a Muslim youth unconnected with uploading indecorous morphed pictures of late Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray and Maratha icon Chhatrapati Shivaji on Facebook, his alleged killers, belonging to a Hindu extremist outfit, exchanged an ominous message on their mobiles. The message said, ‘Pahili wicket padli’, which means: The first wicket has fallen.
"...According to BBC Hindi, at least 193 buses in Pune City and around 200 buses in Kolhapur have been damaged by angry Shiv Sainiks protesting against photo- shopped pictures of Shivaji uploaded on Facebook. In Pune, Shiv Sainik miscreants pelted stones at mosques, and in Kolhapur a statue of singer Allah Dia Khan was broken.There is news of stone-pelting in Muslim areas of Basti Muhalla, Bindu Chowk, Mutton Market. This news has not been adequately covered and the hooliganism was ignored by the mainstream media.
"Hated and mocked in much of the world, the Nazi leader has developed a strange following among schoolchildren and readers of Mein Kampf in India... My wife teaches French to tenth-grade students at a private school here in Mumbai. During one recent class, she asked these mostly upper-middle-class kids to complete the sentence “J'admire …” with the name of the historical figure they most admired. To say she was disturbed by the results would be to understate her reaction.
"A seemingly harmless post on Facebook questioning Mumbai shutdown after the death of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray has landed two girls in trouble. The Palghar police in neighbouring Thane on Sunday arrested Shaheen Dhada and her friend Renu charging them with hurting religious sentiments, apparently under pressure from Shiv Sainiks. The police action has evoked widespread outrage. The girls were also charged under the IT Act.
'When Bal Thackeray, a one-time cartoonist turned Hindu fundamentalist leader of India, died on Saturday, the entire city of Mumbai came to a standstill. Over a million people came out to watch the procession, thousands of police, including the Rapid Action Force, were deployed to maintain calm, and commercial businesses chose to shut down. So who was Bal Thackeray and how did his death rally millions to his procession and shut down one of the biggest financial capitals in Asia?
