If Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Raj Thackeray is to be accorded credibility, we shall have to take on board his view that Biharis are “infiltrators” in their own country. The upshot of this has clearly not troubled the impetuous MNS chief out to pick up quick political dividends on his home turf. If using organised goon strength people of a state or community are thrown out or attacked in another state, can the day be far when people of all states become vulnerable in other states? It is people today; will the childish prescription of the budding MNS politician extend to asking for bank deposits of non-Maharashtrians to be externed from Mumbai?
Biharis have earned the MNS leader’s ire because the Bihar government has protested against the Maharashtra police — without informing their Bihar counterparts — snatching a crime suspect from his village home in north Bihar. Mr Thackeray says if Patna seeks to judicially proceed against the Maharashtra police officials, people from Bihar will be declared “infiltrators” in his state.
By any logic, Bihar’s protest is valid. Had permission been sought by Maharashtra, it is unthinkable it would have been denied. On account of our federal arrangement, police from all states routinely cooperate with one another on crime. But, disturbingly, Mr Thackeray has blown the issue out of all proportion to push his chauvinist politics in the hope of future electoral gain. He deserves censure and punishment for inciting enmity between two communities of Indians and challenging the constitutional order.