Some prominent citizens of Bombay wrote to the state government to curb the growing menace of the Senas. In response, this is what a Sena spokesperson had to say :

“Why these double standards by the so-called prominent citizens? What do they have to say about Kasab? What is their stand on MF Husain’s painting Hindu Goddesses nude and what about many other political parties who indulge in anti-national activities?” asked Shiv Sena spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Bharatkumar Raut.

“If these people have not taken a stand on these issues, then they have no right to question the Sena,” Raut added.

For the sake of atleast some coherence, I’ll only concentrate on the last line. In the past, the Senas have said of celebrities that they had no right to talk about politics. They even went ahead and said that Sachin shouldn’t be talking politics.

Here’s my problem — For a political party that is supposed to serve (not rule, mind you) the people, it is scary that they use the word ‘rights’ in such a loose manner. When we were kids, we all made statements like : He called me so-and-so, I have every right to beat him. We, thankfully, moved on to understand what rights really mean. Some kids didn’t. Which is why we see statements like the above. A minor irony is that a right-wing party knows least about rights.

I’d love to grill such people on the rights that being an Indian implies. Of course, they might realize that many of the rights they assume to exist in our constitution, in fact don’t exist at all. They might even conclude that they’re totally screwed living in a country like India, where they cannot follow their ideals. What is worse is that they wouldn’t even be able to burn buses or break glasses to vent their frustration.

But it would be so much fun nah ?

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