Mumbai:
When a young student demanded that a book be withdrawn from the Mumbai University syllabus, it was an announcement that another Thackeray had arrived.
The campaign was fronted by Aditya, the son of Shiv Sena president, Uddhav Thackeray. The book he found offensive Rohinton Mistry's
Such a Long Journey - Aditya said the book's references to the Sena could not be tolerated.
At a rally on Sunday, Uddhav chipped in. "Once you read the book
Such a Long Journey, you realise the content is against Marathi dabbawalas and the Marathi people," he said.
The book has already been withdrawn from the BA syllabus at the university - a move much criticised by intellectuals and former professors.
Now, the author has, for the first time, commented on the issue. From Canada, where he is based, Mistry has in a letter to writers and intellectuals, said, "A political party demanded an immediate change in syllabus and Mumbai University provided deluxe service via express delivery, making the book disappear the very next day... Mumbai University has come perilously close to institutionalising the ugly notion of self-censorship."
About Aditya, grandson of Sena founder Bal Thackeray, Mistry says "a 20-year-old, in the final year of BA in History, beneficiary of a good education... about to embark on the Shiv Sena's well-trodden path to appeal to the worst in human nature."
For the Shiv Sena, cultural and moral policing is an old strategy aimed at keeping the party relevant. Bollywood - and some of its most iconic figures - surrender often to the Sena's expanse of diktats. But now, writers say they will go to court against the university's acquiescence.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has said that the book has highly objectionable language.
"There is objectionable language in Rohinton Mistry's book and we wouldn't approve his book for students," he told NDTV.