Mumbai:
"Shah Rukh Khan has no right to live in the country. ..he is a snake... he has given a statement in New York, let him say the same in Mumbai.'' Samples of the sort of venom that Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena MP, has been spewing against Shah Rukh Khan in press conferences.
As the Shiv Sena, desperate to grab the spotlight and fight its image as a party on the decline, gets more shrill in its attacks, the role of the Maharashtra government is equally suspect. Why isn't any action being taken against the Sena and its leaders? Much of the criticism against Chief Minister Ashok Chavan is emerging from his own party.
''I totally agree the state government has not done enough," said Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam.
The Maharashtra Congress has a history of inaction against the Sena and its hooliganism; recently, its inertia has extended to outbursts of violence and threats by Raj Thackeray and his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena as well.
''That is why we say we are a soft state. And whenever the laws are not enforced, the governance becomes very poor,'' says Julio Rebeiro, former Mumbai Police Commissioner.
Under Sections 153 A and 153 B of the Indian Penal Code, the Shiv Sena can be prosecuted for promoting enmity between groups. There is enough to prove the party guilty of creating linguistic enmity aimed at migrants, and religious enmity in references to the Hindu-Muslim divide.
(Read: Will Sena face action for statements against SRK?)But the chief minister has failed to commit to anything other than action against anyone who disrupts screenings of Shah Rukh's forthcoming release, My Name is Khan. The government's legal department will also scan Shiv Sena articles.
Many critics argue that for a city being held hostage by a minority party, that's hardly enough reassurance.