The Shiv Sena has been notorious for decades for giving free rein to chauvinism, communalism and xenophobia which often take the form of insensate violence. Even its MPs recently did not hesitate to be totally unfeeling about a poor employee of the IRCTC who looked after the catering of food at Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi. These MPs force fed a Muslim caterer who was observing Ramzan fast. The Sena MPs denied the allegation when the matter came up in Parliament. But a video confirmed the shameful incident. The MPs then claimed that the intention was to make the victim eat a chapati to show how tasteless it was and that they were not aware the caterer was a Muslim. There is no alibi for the bigoted act of offending against the victim’s religion. The Sena MPs were well aware of the poor man’s religion which was shown visibly on his identity tag.
The BJP is the senior alliance partner of the Shiv Sena and should ensure that the offending MPs are brought to book. Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani has said that the act was not right. It was not a strong enough condemnation. And there has been no official criticism from the ruling party. The BJP’s massive majority in Parliament does not give it immunity. It should distance itself from the Shiv Sena. In the past, it has been unduly tolerant of the Sena’s excesses. There are other fringe organizations which resort to Hindu terrorism violating the spirit of secularism. The BJP’s tolerant attitude clashes with its ‘India first’ slogan. The Sena incident gives it an opportunity to live up to its slogan and demonstrate that democratic values override coalition considerations.
