Updated Monday, December 1 2008: 4:18 AM

Vilasrao Deshmukh must also go.

And next time Raj Thackeray opens his vile mouth, he must be put behind bars in the interest of the nation

To the everlasting shame of the Maharashtra administration, when it comes to attacking and killing a young man from Patna cornered inside a BEST bus, the Mumbai police showed great "promptness", "alacrity", and "success" in resolving a "dangerous" situation. The police received accolades from the CM, Vilasrao Deshmukh and the man supposedly the architect of rebuilding Maharashtra, Raj Thackeray. Yet the same police, the same Maharashtra administration, is clueless in apprehending boatloads of men, armed with heavy firepower, who offloaded from a large vessel in the Arabial Sea and quickly established command centers inside luxury hotels and other locations insde the city loved by Maharshtrians and by Indians as well. To add insult to injury, a senior member of the Union cabinet, and a member of the ruling Congress Party brazenly proclaims that the attack was many months in the making, (click here for the news item) unasahmedly failing to address the isuue as to what were the different arms of government responsible for national security and maintenance of law and order doing in the meantime.

As we pour our angusih and sorrow at the tragic incident, I as a Bihari cannot lose sight of the fact that people who matter in Maharashtra are quick to incite violence against Biharis and other north Indians, while they are completely oblivious to the dark, dangerous and evil forces that have the destruction of our nation as their avowed goal. Aren't these Maharashtrian "leaders", Vilasrao Deshmukh and Raj Thackeray, for example, not acting as accomplices of those engaged in destroying our nation?

Manmohan Singh, and all those who rule India with a cobbled  coalition, must rise to the occasion and face the challenge facing the nation. It is time that they, by their actions, instill in us a sense of nationhood. Forces that promote parochial- and provinciali-sm must be punished and silenced forever. They must show the political will that in the interest of protecting our national interest they will not hesitate to condemn tha utterings and actions of goons like Raj Thackeray and his accomplice Vilasrao Deshmukh.

We live in dangerous times. We must show to the world that we the people of India firmly believe that India is for Indians. Enough of Maharashtra for Maharashtrians nonsense.

And as for those pseudo-journalists who are quick to use Patna as an epithet ("We must not allow Mumbai to become a Patna", for example, in their writings): If they have an ounce of shame in them, and if they truly are a well-wisher of the Indian nation, they would stop wallowing in this kind of destructive rhetoric, tuck their tail between their legs, and do their part in nation building rather than nation-disruption.

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For earlier news, please click here