UPA govt threatens to lock Raj up under NSA

NEW DELHI: The Centre warned the Maharashtra government on Friday that it would intervene to order the arrest of Raj Thackeray under the National Security Act if the MNS’ violent agitation against north Indians in Mumbai continues.

In the strongest censure so far of the state’s failure to curb the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader, PM Manmohan Singh directed Union home minister Shivraj Patil to communicate to chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh the upshot of Thursday’s cabinet meeting at which the suggestion to invoke the National Security Act (NSA) was mooted by science and technology minister Kapil Sibal.

The central government is empowered to issue a non-bailable arrest warrant under the NSA for detention up to one year. A person arrested under the NSA can be shifted to another state if the government deems it necessary.

A senior government source indicated that Sibal was deliberately fielded to propose using the NSA against the MNS chief in the hope that it would serve as a warning to both Thackeray and Deshmukh. Sibal, an eminent lawyer, is often consulted by the PM and Congress president Sonia Gandhi for legal advice.

The warning resulted in back-to-back press conferences by Thackeray in Mumbai and union minister from Bihar Ram Vilas Paswan in Delhi.

Although both kept up their tough rhetoric, a slight softening was discernible with Paswan saying he appreciated Thackeray’s efforts to calm passions by recognising the religious sentiments of Bihar’s main festival, chhat puja.

There were ripples of surprise in the cabinet meeting on Thursday when Sibal flagged NSA as an option for central intervention in Maharashtra. Patil was quite taken aback and he is believed to have defended the state government by arguing that it has already taken action against Thackeray by slapping 56 cases against him.

Sibal shot back that those cases were obviously ineffective because Thackeray was out on bail and there was no curb on his activities. He said the situation called for more stringent action.

Over the past one week, the UPA has been buffeted by a near civil war situation between its Maharashtra and Bihar contingents with competitive regional politics virtually threatening to tear the ruling coalition apart. For both Paswan and Lalu Yadav, their continuance in the Union cabinet was becoming untenable, particularly after their chief rival in Bihar, the JD(U) dared them to resign in protest against the MSN’s anti-north Indian agitation.

In fact, on Thursday, JD(U) president Sharad Yadav announced that his party MPs in the Lok Sabhas would resign from Parliament on December 7 before it meets. Realising that they were losing ground in their home state, Paswan and Lalu had virtually served a 48-hour ultimatum on the Manmohan Singh government on Wednesday to crack down on Thackeray or face the music at the Centre.