Mumbai: The vandalisation of a private hospital by the Shiv Sainiks (members of Shiv Sena party) and the subsequent arrest of two young women by the police at Palghar in Thane district over a posting on the Facebook against shutdown of Mumbai has angered one too many and to no end in Mumbai and across Maharashtra.
“What we are witnessing is height of intolerance on the Sena’s part and law enforcers’ scant respect for law,” says Samir Pradhan.
A 52-year-old Maharashtrian entrepreneur, Pradhan is livid, when he hits out against the Sena activists for vandalizing a private hospital at Palghar, owned by a 21-year-old Shaheen Dhanda, who posted a comment against the Mumbai shutdown after Thackeray’s death and for pressuring the local police to arrest Shaheen and her facebook friend Renu Srinivasan who “liked” her comment.
It seems that the ugly “intolerant” face of the Shiv Sena has re-surfaced at a time when the party cadres have come in for wholesome praise of the dignified manner in which they conducted themselves at Thackeray’s funeral. Nor have the Maharashtra police — who received accolades for the peaceful conduct of the funeral procession — have acquitted themselves well in the aftermath of a historic event.
“I thought the Shiv Sainiks created history of sorts by conducting themselves in a most peaceful manner at the funeral of their leader Balasaheb. Shaheen did not insult Balasaheb as is being made out in the Sena circles. But, the events that have unfolded after Shaheen wrote a harmless but a matter of fact comment on her facebook page, have left me with a bad taste, ” Pradhan told Gulf News.
“But the police at the local level have also misused the law to harass the innocent citizens like Shaheen and Renu. This is just not done,” Pradhan said.
Urmila Lovlekar, a Thane-based Maharashtrian housewife and a Bal Thackeray supporter, also disapproves the Sena’s act of vandalism and the “over-reaction” to arrest Dhanda and Pradhan.
“We did not celebrate Diwali at home this year, owing to Thackeray’s illness and his subsequent death. We were satisfied that Balasaheb’s funeral passed off peacefully. But, I am surprised as to why the local Shiv Sainks and the police over-reacted to the message posted originally by Shaheen and liked by Renu,” Lovelekar says.
“The Sena leadership has no role to play in this. The local Sena activists should have been restrained and tolerant in dealing with a facebook comment by Shaheen. She did not insult Balasaheb. They should have ignored the comment, instead of unnecessarily targeting the two young women. From the looks of it, the police have come under pressure from the local Sena leaders to act against the two women,” Lovelekar adds
Forty-five-year textile cloth broker-cum-social activist Saeed Asif Ali from the town of Malegaon in north-Maharashtra, is equally upset with the turn of events leading to the arrest of two women from Palghar in Thane district.
“We are a secular democratic country where people enjoy freedom of speech. Shaheen had every right to express her sentiments. She did not write anything ill against Balasaheb, whom I also respect greatly. But what the Sena activists have done is grossly incorrect and unjustified. They had no business to vandalise a private hospital belonging Shaheen’s uncle,” Ali said.
“There is no way that the local police can get away for the manner in which they misused the law in a bid to please the local Sena leaders. I am totally in agreement with the sentiments expressed by Press Council of India chairman Justice Markandey Katju. As recommended by him, the guilty police officers deserve to be punished for misinterpretation of law,” Ali added.
The Pune-based senior journalist-cum-RTI (right to information) activist Vinita Deshmukh is agitated over the misuse of Information Technology laws by the police. “A fortnight back a businessman Ravi was arrested because he tweeted against Karti Chidambaram, politician and son of Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. Politicians and police are using this Section now to harass citizens,” she says.
Deshmukh, who has launched an online petition to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking to amend the provision 66 A of IT Act, says: “The section 66A of the IT Act passed by the UPA government in 2008 is very draconian in nature. It says that anyone posting an ‘offensive’ message in the social media or through electronic media. ‘Offensive’ is a loose word used in Section 66A.”
“This IT law provision is being increasingly used to scuttle the voice of anti-corruption activists, and harass innocent citizens like Shaheen and Renu. Having been arrested for no rhyme or reason, two young ladies are traumatized lot. Life will not be the same again for them,” Deshmukh said.
The online petition launched by Deshmukh states among other things: “We appeal to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to amend section 55 A immediately and make it more focused so that real culprits of such crime are only punished and not citizens who are airing their opinion on various issues in a large democracy like ours”.
