After all, for us too they were only ‘they’. Thackerays too believe in ‘us and they’ but the perimeter of their ‘us and they’ theory is so short that most of the circle comprises of only ‘they’ and that leaves them tenuous. I had no intention of pitting as pygmy politicians as Thackerays, who hold no sway outside Maharashtra, against an empire, which dared to claim that sun would never set on their empire but the reminisce of the very cornerstone of British policy that helped them find and plant feet in India made me do so. Divide and rule, the mantra of British, may have taught Indian politicians some intricacies of prolonging their duration of being in power but Thackerays seem to be the most swotting students of this indoctrination.

If terrorists are those who plant bombs then what name shall we give to those who beat up people, ransack offices, vandalise galleries and cinemas, torch public property and ingrain fear and terror into the minds of the common man? Are they short of being terrorists? To add insult to the injury, they do all this in the garb of politics. They do all this either in the name of nationalism or regionalism or linguism and serve their own individual purposes. There are those who repudiate the very idea of the nation and do anti-national activities and there are those who claim that their nation, their state, their city, their language, their tradition etc runs in their nerves and they do love it as no one else does. Both are equally dangerous for the health of the nation. If the former challenges the integrity of the nation then the latter, like limpets and termites, holds the capability to inflict cracks in the integrity by virtue of being insider. The violent reaction in Patna stands testimony to this.

Likes of Thackerays who derive a perverse pleasure out of even a jail stint should have been nipped in the bud. But that is easier said than done. Especially when the election and hence power is more dear to politicians and psephocracy rather than democracy calls the shots, the future looks bleak. At a time when world is coming to terms with major a financial crisis, a petty politician is on the rampage, untethered, in a city called commercial capital of India. Skepticism prevails.