Shiv Sena photo booth: Wearing black paint in public is a defiance of high order; well done, Kulkarni !

What’s so surprising about Shiv Sena workers blackening the face of Sudheendra Kulkarni? Nothing really. “You better accept what we demand or we will respond in our style.” This has been the standard threat from Sena leaders from time to time to target persons and groups. It was this style that was on display when sainiks applied black ink on Kulkarni’s face. His fault? He had the gumption to host a book-launch event involving former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri in Mumbai. The latest on this story is that six men have been arrested for the attack. [caption id=“attachment_2465820” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A cartoon made by Neelabh for Firstpost.[/caption] The Sena is known for such antics. It’s generally irreverent to better ways of expressing dissent and impatient with resistance. For good or bad, it has been acting as the khap panchayat that Mumbai never had for long. The ‘style’ that its leaders talk of has been put to effective use for several decades now. And it certainly has not gone out of circulation in spite of the party losing its political heft in the state. Only a couple of days ago, it managed to get a concert by Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali in the city cancelled. Does the expression of nationalist sentiment have to be this crude? Aren’t there ways besides coercion and intimidation to get one’s point across? These questions have been put to the party often. Of course, response has been one of disdain. When action speaks, there’s no point wasting words. What would be of some satisfaction to the party these days is that the ‘style’ has gone national. Political parties are still a bit wary of following it, but fringe groups of all shades have taken to it with gusto. Right from the killing of rationalists to mob justice over beef to vicious troll attacks on the social media to call for book bans to random attacks on issues downright frivolous, it is evident like never before in the history of the democracy. A khap panchayat of the national kind with no definite structure or shape has gradually entrenched itself in the national narrative. Restricted to the margins not long ago, it used to assert itself intermittently through activities that generally involved violence; it’s a mainstream player now. Watch members of several groups that subscribe to the khap mentality come on prime time television and pour scorn with no inhibition. Watch the absence of sense of guilt in attacking someone or the total lack of remorse in someone getting murdered. Read social media to gauge the extent of hatred and murderous rage going around. Surely, the mainstreaming of low culture is near complete. What does it tell us about the times we live in? Well, the state is vacating space to elements that are potentially dangerous. It is confused where it stands on the matter of higher values. It is ready to give up at the slightest hint of a fight. We don’t know whether that’s how historical forces assert themselves – by making the state, the symbol of the old order, redundant. But things certainly don’t look pleasant now. There are signs of collapse. Perhaps, it is the ‘style’ and the exercise of it by various elements that are responsible for it. The attack on Sudheendra Kulkarni is symptomatic of something deeply troubling. If he is a worried man today, he should devise his own style to strike back. Appearing calm, reasonable yet very firm in his resolve to go ahead with the scheduled programme is one way. And wearing the black paint in public is defiance of the highest order. Kudos Kulkarni.