Column

In fact, MNS chief speaks like Barack Obama; difference: latter doesn’t beat up taxiwallahs

To protect the interests of the sons of the soil, and indeed of the daughters, is a legitimate mandate of leaders. An obiter dictum: I think it is the alliterative felicity that makes politicians and some media commentators exclude women from the overused label describing the primacy of local residents.

At any rate, Raj Thackeray's campaign to safeguard the Maharashtrians’ wellbeing falls on a platform which hosts the most decorous, dignified, and admired political stars.

For example, Barack Obama has stressed that he is against policies that encourage off-shoring of American jobs to countries like India. His employment plan includes the provision of tax credit to US companies that do not export jobs. His propositions have not engenderedrevulsion anywhere in America.

That is because the Democratic campaign staff does not smash windscreens of taxis run by Indians or Pakistanis. Nor are the migrants battered for doing nothing more than enjoying an opportunity to which they are entitled, legally as well as constitutionally.

In Mumbai, the police have urged TV channels not to continually play the disturbing images which show the violent contempt some hooligans demonstrated for the law and for migrants. I suppose the recommendation is well meant because, in these volatile times, we do not need provocative sparks.

But, as a Maharashtrian friend told me, the disturbing incidents did serve an important purpose: they told him how twisted an apparently innocuous demand, had now become. “I saw one goon pinning down a man who had come to take the railway board exam,” my friend said. “He punched and punched and punched and punched and punched and punched the candidate. I wanted to scream, ‘Stop! This is no way to protect my interest’. I was devastated beyond words.”

One element of that highly emotional personal testimony is important: “…this is no way to protect my interest”.

Now, we all know that show of power in parliament or legislatures is a process sanctified by utmost finality. But we also know that the process is tedious and does not make for very compelling publicity political parties. So some bring out the street-fighters for a little bit of muscular demonstration of influence.

But all politicians must consider that both means and ends set precedents. Protecting local interests is absolutely crucial and laudable. But leaders must heed Julius Caesar's caveat on precedents. He was talking of death penalty, but it is not hard to extrapolate it to the general principle of justice: “Bad precedents all emerge from measures good in themselves.

When power passes from you into the hands of unworthy and ignorant men, the precedent you will have established by imposing an extraordinary punishment on men who deserve it will be used against the innocent, who do not deserve it.”