The shooting of Rahul Raj by the Mumbai police was unfortunate but the police cannot be held responsible at all for this incident. If a young man with a loaded revolver gets into a bus and fires at bystanders, then it is up to the police to take a call. You and I, sitting in the comfort of our homes, have no right to debate on the incident since we were not on the spot. If the young man had gone ahead and killed someone, the police would have been criticised for acting late. As it is, the Mumbai police have been facing criticism from all quarters for the manner in which they dealt with Raj Thackeray. This was an unfortunate incident, but the Mumbai police were not aware of the fact that the young man was a student of radiology from Bihar. Let’s not interpret this as a battle between two communities. It was a simple case of a young man with a loaded gun threatening the bus passengers; the police, under the circumstances, did what they thought was the best in the interest of the security of the people around.

But our politicians think otherwise. It’s really easy to understand the mentality of the Indian politicians. Whenever there is an issue of global economic downturn or national security, our politicians have no answers to it and will try their best to elude the media; but, whenever they get an opportunity to criticize someone from another political party, state or even community, they are amongst the first to summon the media.

Now that the unfortunate incident is over, the aftershocks will emerge, thanks to our politicians. The Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil was quick to say, “The police did the right thing. Those who take the law in their hands will be dealt with in the same way. The boy was armed. The answer to a bullet will always be a bullet". The minister though, could have used a more sympathetic tone in his message. The Bihar Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi has criticized the Mumbai police for not trying to immobilize the boy by shooting the young man on his thigh or hand. Meanwhile the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has ordered a CBI inquiry into this matter whereas Lalu Prasad Yadav has sought a ban on MNS as well as Shiv Sena, as he always does. The issue of Raj Thackeray’s security has been raised and the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna has justified the encounter and praised the police action.

The layman has to understand that politicians are only saying what they are politically required to say. Though the incident was an unfortunate one, it was between a young man with a gun and the police. It did not involve any political party, government or community and no political party should be allowed to gain political mileage out of the incident