'Maharashtra CM is too busy distributing wedding invitations'

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: As Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray was arrested Wednesday on charges of fuelling hatred among ethnic groups, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was busy with his son's wedding preparations in far away Latur.

Although Mumbai remained largely calm even as additional paramilitary forces were rushed to the city, a section of Congress leaders voiced unhappiness over the absence of Deshmukh from the city.

"The chief minister is too busy distributing invitation cards for his son's marriage to look into the state affairs," complained a senior party leader from Maharashtra, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Party sources say that the chief minister's failure to check the tensions and curb sporadic violence since Feb 3 has irked Congress president Sonia Gandhi as well.

According to these sources, Gandhi asked Deshmukh to take prompt action to rein in violence-prone MNS activists when he met her in New Delhi to invite her for his elder son Amit's wedding later this month.

Deshmukh reportedly told Gandhi that the government would have to prepare to face the backlash if MNS chief Raj Thackeray, nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, was arrested.

The younger Thackeray was finally arrested Wednesday afternoon after a long guessing game.

The sources added that Gandhi sent out to Deshmukh another terse act-now warning Tuesday evening. Her political secretary Ahmed Patel conveyed this to Deshmukh.

The Congress' wait-and-watch policy vis-à-vis the vandalism by MNS directed people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar has perplexed many.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil had to step in to ask the state government to provide protection to the "vulnerable", four days after MNS supporters went on a violent spree.

"The government has been asked to take necessary action against the miscreants indulging in such activities without delay and to protect those who may be vulnerable," Patil said.

There are rumours that Deshmukh might be replaced. At the same time, the state Congress leaders are blaming the police for allowing the MNS to have a free run and taken on Samajwadi Party activists.

"The police have been mute spectators," Mumbai Congress chief Gurudas Kamat complained. "My advise to the police chief is he need not look at anybody for directions on how to do his job. Time has come for him to prove the worth of his uniform."

Political analyst Prem Shankar Jha has a different take to the Congress party's unresponsive and delayed action to the rapid sequence of events in Mumbai.

"I feel there is no political reason for the late reaction of the government. If they (Congress) had acted, they would have played into the hands of the bazaar hoodlums. The government is going by the rule book," he said.

"If you arrest Raj, he becomes a martyr. And if he refuses bail, the political battle continues," Jha said.