The major political parties of the Indian state of Maharashtra only legitimize and strengthen Shiv Sena's intolerance as it attempts to erode the shores that protect freedom of thought and expression in India, said The Hindu in an editorial published Sunday. Excerpts: Anyone remotely familiar with the Shiv Sena knows that it routinely attempts to thrust itself in the public eye by protesting stridently, and sometimes violently, against the contents of books, films, and paintings. However, its recent campaign against Rohinton Mistry's Such A Long Journey – which resulted in the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted novel being withdrawn from Mumbai University's curriculum – has raised the question: Why did the Shiv Sena suddenly decide to target a work of fiction published two decades ago, which has been a part of the university's B.A. English literature syllabus for the last four years? The answer is this is in honor of Aditya Thackeray, recently inducted into politics by grandfather Bal Thackeray and appointed head of the Yuva Sena. The new youth wing chief and his party have argued that parts of this finely crafted, socio-politically sensitive novel – which is set in the early 1970s and revolves around a middle-aged Parsi bank clerk struggling to stay out of poverty – are offensive to the Shiv Sena. Such expressions of simulated hurt sentiment were used to justify the Sena's campaign of intimidation, which included burning the book on campus. Even more cynically, they were used to provide a platform for the young Mr. Thackeray to make a dramatic entry into politics. __
