Bihar reacts with violence, Sena justifies attacks

The politics of streetfighting moved many notches lower as Bihar reacted to attacks on Biharis in Maharashtra and the Shiv Sena justified the recent violence against “outsiders”.

Angry students torched an AC coach of a train on the second day of protests against attacks by the activists of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on north Indian candidates during a railway recruitment exam in suburban Mumbai.

The reverberations were also felt in Jamshedpur, where two persons were arrested and sent to jail for ransacking the official residence of Tata Motors’ plant head, SB Borwankar, a Maharashtrian.

“Police have procured video footage from local electronic media to identify the miscreants,” said a police source. Over 100 miscreants who ransacked Borwankar’s house yesterday are suspected to be supporters of the Bharatiya Bhojpuri Sangh.

The Barh railway station in rural Patna —which happens to be the area where Chief Minister Nitish Kumar comes from, was besieged by hundreds of protesting students demanding that Thackeray, who has been arrested, be tried for sedition. A coach of the Danapur-Durg South Bihar Express was set on fire.

Government Railway Police and Railway Protection Force personnel rushed to the spot and had to baton-charge. No arrest was reported.

In Pune, defending its stir to ensure jobs for the Marathi people in the railways, the Shiv Sena cited the example of political parties in Tamil Nadu, including the ruling DMK, which it said were exerting pressure on the UPA government to protect the interests of Tamilians in Sri Lanka.

“The DMK has even threatened to withdraw support to the UPA at the Centre if the government failed to curb the anti-LTTE offensive launched by the Sri Lankan military,” an editorial in Saamna, the Sena mouthpiece, commented.

“These political parties are so sensitive to Tamilian interests even outside India and the Shiv Sena is being condemned for supporting jobs for the Marathis,” the editorial in the paper, edited by party chief Bal Thackeray, said.