With each passing day, Shiv Sena is proving how power in the wrong hands leads to arrogance and misgovernance. A 62-year-old retired Navy officer Madan Sharma, residing in Kandivali was attacked by four Shiv Sena hooligans including Shakha Pramukh Kamlesh Kadam for merely forwarding a cartoon on WhatsApp (WA).

As per available information, the cartoon showing Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray bowing down before Sonia Gandhi (Antonio Maino) and Sharad Pawar was being circulated on various Social Media (SM) platforms and the navy veteran had merely forwarded the same.

There is nothing derogatory in this cartoon which merely depicts Uddhav’s dependency on Congress and NCP to run the government. Wit and satire have long been accepted as tools to criticize the government in a humorous way. Indeed, the founder of Shiv Sena, Balasaheb Thackeray himself was a cartoonist. He himself used acerbic language and cartoons to criticize political opponents. Considering that Sena needs their support to continue in office as they simply don’t have the numbers to form the government on their own, this picture is merely a reflection of the ground reality.

This, however, did not go down well with the Sena goons, and led by Kadam 8-10 of them reached the building where Shri Sharma resided. Kadam arrived there and asked the ex-navy officer to come down. When the veteran heeded the request and came down, Kamlesh and his goons began thrashing him.

The officer in his statement to the PTI has said “I have worked for the nation my entire life. A government like this should not exist” while adding that 8-10 people attacked him after he received threatening calls for forwarding a message.

An FIR was registered at the Samta Nagar Police Station, However, it must be added that the Mumbai police insisted on taking Sharma with them to the police station, a move that was condemned by the veteran’s daughter. It must be noted that the Mumbai Police has been recently facing severe flak from various quarters for acting under political pressure.

Consider the recent case of Congress activist Saket Gokhale. Gokhale had filed a plea in court against shilanyas of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The court threw him out with his petition. A few people had gathered near his house and raised slogans of “Jai Shree Ram” in protest. No violent actions were done and no property damaged. Still, on a tweet of Gokhale, Mumbai Police arrested four people for saying “Jai Shri Ram”! Home Minister Anil Deshmukh personally assured him of safety on twitter and presumably on phone too.

In another recent case, journalists belonging to Republic TV were arrested because they wanted to cover some news that could be allegedly troublesome for the government. Arnab Goswami himself was interrogated for hours a few weeks ago for taking the name “Antonia Maino” in public and an attempt to assault him was made.

After the pressure from the public, Mumbai Police had to make four arrests in this case including two Shakha Pramukhs Kamlesh Kadam and Sanjay Manjre who have been named as the main accused. What happens now remains to be seen.

We would also like to remind readers that when Kangana Ranaut had spoken about feeling unsafe due to the threats issued by Sena’s Sanjay Raut and asked whether they intended to turn it into PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir), the entire government machinery and their Bollywood PR brigade had come out all guns blazing.

However, neither Home Minister Anil Deshmukh not any of the so-called “I love Mumbai” Bollywood PR brigade had anything to say on the hooliganism on display by Sena goons except deafening silence. Since they seem to suffer from some sort of collective convenient amnesia, here’s a picture where Navy veteran Madhav Sharma has been given red-eye by the Sena goons just like the Pakistanis did with our brave Wing Commander Abhinandan.

There have been several attempts by Sena hooligans in recent times to present Uddhav as some larger than life and powerful chief minister, probably to hide the fact that his government has failed on several fronts. Sena workers have gone to the extent of taking offence to the Hindi word tu (you) that Kangana used in her video addressing the CM.

The peddlers of “freedom of expression” and “gunda raj” narratives are usually a noisy lot. However, in this case it seems they have decided that ‘discretion is the better part of valour’. The same was seen in case of Arnab Goswami, and people chanting “Jai Shri Ram”. Indeed, they were vilified as hooligans without them doing any violence! All these are markings of a truly fascist regime which brooks no dissent at all.

The arrogance on display by Shiv Sena hooligans led by Sanjay Raut and the inefficiency displayed by CM Uddhav Thackeray did not go down well with Twitteratis who trended #UddhavResignNow.

Power has gone so much to their heads that Sena is indeed out to prove that they’ll turn Mumbai into PoK. Time to remind them of the saying “absolute abuse of power is an act of arrogance that gets answered at the ballot box”.

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