The Hindu : Front Page : Sena men attack magazine office in Mumbai

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 15, 2007
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Sena men attack magazine office in Mumbai

Staff Reporter

Protest against inclusion of Bal Thackeray in the “list of villains” in the Independence Day issue of Outlook

— Photo: Vivek Bendre

Vandalised: The Outlook magazine office in Mumbai ransacked by Shiv Sena activists on Tuesday.

MUMBAI: A group of around 10 persons, suspected to be members of the Shiv Sena, ransacked the office of the weekly magazine Outlook on Tuesday, protesting the inclusion of the party supremo Bal Thackeray in the list of villains in i ts Independence Day special issue.

The group damaged property, shouted slogans and threatened to cause more damage before leaving. No one was injured.

According to the police and witnesses, the group arrived at the office in Nariman Point, south Mumbai, and asked for the editor. It started smashing the glass and broke fax machines while shouting slogans and asking how the magazine could call Balasaheb a villain. Ten to fifteen employees were present in the office at the time.

Smruti Koppikar, Chief of Bureau in Mumbai, said, “It is ironic that on the eve of Independence Day there should be an assault on the Press. Outlook recognises Shiv Sena’s right to protest, but there should be more civil ised and more democratic forms of protest.” She said the perpetrators also threatened to attack the office of Outlook in the city’s western suburb.

The Mumbai police registered a case against unidentified persons for trespassing, damage to property and unlawful assembly. “We haven’t arrested anyone yet,”Deputy Commissioner of Police Brajesh Singh said.

On page 34 of the issue there is a sketch of Mr. Thackeray, sporting a toothbrush moustache, in Hitler’s attire. He is the eighth in the list of 11 villains.

The article says:

“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 1993 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.’”

The Outlook list of villains includes Nathuram Godse, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Sanjay Gandhi, Narendra Modi, Mohammed Azharuddin, Bal Thackeray, H.K.L. Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler, Dawood Ibrahim and Indira Gandhi’ s killers Beant and Satwant Singh.

The magazine’s panel of experts, which included Prof. Mushirul Hassan, Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, veteran journalist B.G. Verghese and historian and novelist Mukul Kesavan compiled a list of 60 personalities, classifying them as heroes and villains.

PTI reports from New Delhi:

Outlook’ s editor-in-chief Vinod Mehta said it was an 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.”

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