Sena activists ransack Outlook office for calling Thackeray a villain

A group of Shiv Sena activists yesterday ransacked the Mumbai office of weekly Outlook to protest an article in the magazine that featured party chief Bal Thackeray in a list of "villains". The activists barged into the office located in Raheja Chambers in the business district of Nariman Point in the afternoon and asked for the editor. They started ransacking the office on being told that no senior person was around.

Eyewitnesses said some windows and office stationery were damaged in the incident.

A forensic expert searches the office premises of 'Outlook' magazine in Mumbai August 14, 2007. Members of hardline Shiv Sena party ransacked the office of the news magazine on Tuesday, upset that the latest edition described their leader as a villain, police said. (Reuters/Outlook).

Citing speeches made by Thackeray against Muslims, the magazine in its latest Independence Day special listed him as a villain. Thackeray’s name featured alongside Nathuram Godse, Gaya Ram, the faceless terrorist, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Sanjay Gandhi, Narendra Modi, Mohammed Azharuddin, HKL Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler, Dawood Ibrahim, Beant Singh, and Satwant Singh

Describing the attack on the magazine as a "crude" attempt to muzzle journalists, its editor-in-chief Vinod Mehta said the freedom of the press was still under threat 60 years after the country's independence. "This is a blatant attack on the freedom of the press. The Shiv Sena activists attacked our editorial office in Mumbai and made no attempt to disguise their identity," Mehta told the Press Trust of India (PTI).

Mehta said he spoke to Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh immediately after the attack, according to PTI. "He was quite disturbed after hearing of this attack. We have to consider and introspect that this kind of attack on the press is happening when India is celebrating its 60 years of independence. It is a crude attack on the freedom of the press," he said.

Hours after the news sparked off heated television debates on press freedom, the Sena claimed that the assailants were not Sainiks. Party spokesman Sanjay Raut said it was the handiwork of a mob. "I am aware of Sainiks burning copies of Outlook but I don't think the attack on their office was orchestrated by Sainiks. It was a mob attack and the Shiv Sena will not claim any responsibility for it," he said.

'Outlook' wrote: This former cartoonist has reduced democratic politics to a poor caricature of what it was supposed to be—in style, in substance, and even rhetoric. He built his political following by demonising 'the other'. The South Indian in Bombay was his initial object of hate, later it became the Muslim. His speeches and articles following the demolition of the Babri Masjid sparked the ghastly 1992 Mumbai riots. His mindset is best revealed through these words of admiration for Hitler: "He did very cruel and ugly things. But he was an artist, I love him. He had the power to carry the whole nation, the mob with him. You have to think what magic he had. He was a miracle."

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urged the Mumbai police to provide the journalists at Outlook with protection as requested. CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said, “We also ask the Maharashtra state government to give this case the urgent attention that it deserves and ensure that those responsible for the attack are brought to justice.”

The Editors Guild of India called the incident a direct attack on the freedom of the press. "The threats issued to the magazine that the members of Shiv Sena would again attack the news magazine's offices is a direct attack on the freedom of the press, especially in a democratic set-up where political parties are duty-bound to eschew violence," the Guild said in a statement.

The statement by Guild President Alok Mehta and Secretary-General KS Sachidananda Murthy said the intolerant attitude was unacceptable in a democratic set-up. The Guild has demanded that the Maharashtra Government should immediately provide protection and also initiate legal protection against those who perpetrated the attack.

It said the Shiv Sena too should take action against its members who have indulged in the attack. "The Guild urges civil society to mobilise itself to protect the freedom of expression, which was sought to be undermined in Mumbai," the statement said.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) also condemned the attack. "If all politicians were to be so sensitive about media criticism, then there would be little room left for ordinary citizens to comment on governance processes," said IFJ Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline Park.