Monday’s ink-throwing on Sudheendra Kulkarni, who organised the launch of a book authored by former Pakistan Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, is an act of competitive intolerance, Communist Party of India (Marxist) politburo member Brinda Karat has said.
She questioned the Maharashtra government’s silence. A book launch function was a perfectly democratic platform. “If the Shiv Sena can dare to try and prevent it by actual physical attack, it is precisely because the Fadnavis government is giving respect to those who are intolerant…”
Recalling the way singer Ghulam Ali was prevented from performing in Mumbai, she said the Maharashtra government had then said the organisers were backing off. “Where the BJP and Shiv Sena are in partnership in the government, the first threat was made against Ghulam Ali. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that something like this does not happen,” she said.
