I am not sure if Thackeray’s bouncers have hurt the Pakistani cricketers as intended by him, but surely the wicketkeeper BJP is left unnerved and badly bruised. With the Sainiks delivering yet another nasty one that the beleaguered BJP can neither afford to collect nor miss, the latter’s credibility has suffered perhaps one of the worst bodyblows in this series which is compounded by its gross inability to even raise a whisper against the offenders.
As for the Sainiks, they are beyond the rapproach and reason to realise that their vandalism is only burying for eternity whatever support and acceptability they enjoyed so long, for cricket is a greater passion than the Hindutva of the Sena brand. The Sena has just scored a decisive same-side goal, and to be sure, it is just not cricket.
It is now high time the Manohar Joshi government lording over Maharashtra is banished, ideally to Pakistan. Or atleast to the borders where they can take up the real arms and not the hockey sticks and cricket stumps that they regularly use to fight ‘Pakistan’ inside India.
It would also be in the fitness of things to lodge the ‘godfather’ and his ungodly followers inside some highrise prison unmindful of the repurcussions as it is now evident that the country would be better off with these characters languishing inside than when they are lurking outside. It is also imperative to divest these prisoners of their cellphones and the prison of all items that have the potential to be converted into arms.
It does not matter even if a few criminals are let out on parole just to make room for the Sainiks; the latter personify a greater danger to the nation and its integrity. Pooh! What a menace this insane Sena has turned out to be?
If that looks a bit of over-reaction, then all it needs is to scan some of the Sena schemes that are in the offing to thwart the cricket matches. Yesterday’s display of State-sponsored rowdyism need not necessarily be the last straw, for what lies in the Sena store could be worse.
Digging up pitches is passe. More novel methods of madness are now the rage. Take for instance their threat to buy tickets for the matches and then create trouble once they are inside the stadium. Of course, no one can really stop them unless the Sainiks themselves get so engrossed with the game that they forget their mission.
Or the warning issued by a minister to the Indian cricketers of dire consequences if they decide to play with Pakistan, which incidentally they have. But what takes the cake is their plot to let loose poisonous snakes, collection of which is on in right earnest, into the crowd watching the matches. Obviously, the Sena’s idea of protecting Hindus is to get them bitten by snakes as they are likely to constitute a sizeable ‘majority’ of the viewers and so stand a greater risk. Besides, it is sure to enhance the western view of our country as one of snake-charmers! Nationalism at its zenith! So what if the nation’s name is at a nadir.
It is not that the prospect of poisonous snakes as co-spectators or the more venomous Sainiks in their midst, will deter the cricket buffs from making a beeline to the stadium. But what is disconcerting is that,even in the face of public condemnation and an all round outcry against the politicisation of cricket, if the Sena and its senseless leaders still deem it prudent to go ahead with their devious devilry, then one is no longer dealing with mere men but madmen.
Such self defeating demeanour only betrays sick minds which have nothing better to do than to kick up muck which perhaps is their oxygen for survival. But their violent track record warrants that they cannot be ignored, more so when they are in power. And that is the woeful tragedy of the whole unsavoury episode, which is still on show.
If not for the official but silent sanction, these atrocities could not have happened which only goes to highlight the extent to which lunacy has infiltrated the echelons of administration and corridors of power. We are not sure which shastra allows the rulers themselves to cock a snook at the law of the land and patronise vandals and vandalism.
No doubt, denials are issued promptly but they simply fail to hold water. Even assuming that the Sainiks had not perpetrated these attacks, still they are guilty of provoking it, which they themselves do not deny and instead are shamelessly proud of. And if the anti-social elements of whom there is no dearth, take the cue, as it happens always, and let loose a spiral of violence, it is the Sena which has to be blamed squarely.
And the people at large cannot be faulted for placing all such mischief at the Sena’s doorstep, even assuming that it is as dumb as a lamb, for their proclivities are well known. The Sainiks would do well to remember an old Indian saying that runs thus: the snake-charmer invariably dies of a snake bite. (coincidence regretted!)
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