By IANS,
Mumbai: Lashing out at Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan “Khan” over the security provided for “My Name Is Khan”, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray Saturday wondered whether he was the bodyguard of Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan.
“If he is a bodyguard, then he should don a security personnel’s uniform, and stand outside Khan’s ‘Mannat’ bungalow and salute passersby,” Thackeray said in a vitriolic editorial in Saamna, the party’s mouthpiece, a day after the Sena-versus-“MNIK” imbroglio.
According to Thackeray, during the past seven-eight days when Chavan was busy providing security to the superstar and his movie, eight farmers had committed suicide in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.
“Instead of worrying about the suicides in Marathwada-Vidarbha-Khandesh (north Maharashtra), was it more important to ensure the release of Khan’s stupid movie?” he demanded in the edit.
The state’s police force was “blatantly deployed” as if they were the “slaves and servants” of Khan and they arrested Shiv Sainiks.
“Was the movie based on the lives of heroes like Vasudev Balwant Phadke, Swatantraveer Savarkar or the Queen Laxmibai of Jhansi for requiring provision of so much security cover? What was achieved by exhibiting Khan’s love lore for Pakistan in a handful of cinema halls under the cover of AK-47s?” he wondered.
The police “seemed to have forgotten that they are also from Maharashtra” and the party promised to “expose” the police department.
Thackeray warned that if the police continued to target Shiv Sainiks in this manner, soon the country would turn “green” (referring to the colour of Islam), the police headquarters would become a “Hari Masjid” (Green Mosque) and the top police officials would become its “Imams” (Muslim clergy).
All the drama under tight security was not an act of bravery on the part of the police but enacted merely to keep Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and “Prince” Rahul Gandhi happy and it would “prove to be your nemesis”, the editorial held.
“And Shah Rukh Khan is not even someone like the great, towering patriot, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, but have the police even heard the latter’s name?”
At this rate, the 20 brave police officials who were martyred in the 26/11, 2008, terror attacks need not be termed as “martyrs”, instead, Chavan should declare the nine Pakistani terrorists killed in the gunbattle as “new martyrs”, construct a marble memorial for them and salute them daily, said Thackeray.
Besides losing their mental balance in the entire Khan episode, “Ashok (Chavan) Khan” and Congressmen even had their belts come off, making it a complete “vastraharan” (disrobing), the edit said.
Even as the chief minister and Home Minister “Khan” (R.R. Patil) watched the “nude dance” (movie), five more farmers committed suicide in Vidarbha, according to Thackeray.