Indrajit
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For the CM to take recourse to deal-brokering where one party threatens violence against the other is a straightforward acceptance, even of advocacy, of measures other than those compliant with the rule of law. In this view, it is no longer the law that matters; it is who has the greater potential to create trouble.
I agree with your premise but that issue needs the aggrieved party to take recourse to law. They are not willing to do so, the reason for which is the general lack of confidence in the law & order apparatus as also an unwillingness to stand the ground. As I have said, the very same producer went hand in bowl to Raj Thackeray's house in 2009 because his film used the word Bombay instead of Mumbai. The point I'm making is that when one is willing to grovel so easily, there will be no dearth of people forcing them to do so. There wasn't a BJP government in the picture then but it made no difference. This is a field where there is high susceptibility to threats of even minor violence . They had an assurance from the Indian Home Minister, they should have held on to that if they had even a little amount of courage.
The Chief Minister's fault was to put himself publicly in front of this compromise negotiation. What we might find unpalatable still gets done sometimes and we have to try to be as realistic as possible about it. The Chief Minister should have facilitated a meeting but not directly participated. This was not just about the producers, the persons running the multiplexes & the theatres must all have wanted the risk to them mitigated. The sad truth is that even if the movie had been accorded protection, Raj Thackeray & the MNS were going nowhere and the people concerned would have had to deal with them at some point. Unless there is the willingness from the state to deal with this kind of people with an iron fist, we will always have to deal with issues like this regardless of the stink that arises. As a state, we have been willing to let all sorts of people hold us to ransom, petty goons, chauvinistic groups, what to talk about political parties. This has been happening over a prolonged time, when different governments have been in power & is not limited, even if it is most visible, to Maharashtra/Mumbai. To act as if it is otherwise would be to delude ourselves.