Save Maharashtra from Adolf Raj

Jaya Bachchan just wanted to say that she is proud of her roots and liked speaking Hindi (it’s not her mother tongue, by the way; Bengali is). Mr. Raj Thackeray, of course, doesn’t like anyone to be proud of anything but Maharashtra and his intellectual and political landscape does not stretch beyond his home state and ‘his’ people, whatever that means. I wouldn’t be surprise if tomorrow he calls for Maharashtra to be renamed as ‘Maratha Republic of Maharashtra’ with Marathi as the official language. He has quite forgiven Jaya Bachchan because the head of the family Mr. Amitacbh Bachchan tendered an unconditional public apology saying that he is regrets if anyone was hurt on account of Jaya’s utterance.

So, Jaya Bachchan or anyone else, for that matter, has no right to be proud of his language or culture. All he or she can be proud of is Maharashtra. Mr. Raj is out to impose restrictions not only on what one says but also on what one is proud of. Nothing in Jaya’s statement is innately offending. She expressed what she felt about something and certainly did not intend to make anyone feel in any particular way. Her right to freedom of speech and expression is an inviolable fundamental right. And the right simply cannot be taken away by the threat of violence held out by the likes of Raj. The state government of Maharshtra cannot allow the subversion of Constitution by such vested political interests. Raj simply has no business going around gagging people with a threat of violence. Isn’t that a terror tactic? No wonder, Raj is all praise for Hitler’s ‘organizational skills’.