Amid reports of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) voting for National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) presidential candidat

Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday hit back at the senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar for terming the Shiv Sena as an "earthworm", sa

The Jammu region today witnessed a complete shutdown, led by at least 13 political parties and other organisations, over t

'Benami' assets worth Rs 300 crore of NCP leader Chhagan Bujbal and his family have been attached by the Income Tax Depart

The Opposition tonight stood a divided house as NCP, JD(U), BSP, BJD, Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal(S) participated in th

The Maharashtra assembly speaker today suspended 19 Opposition MLAs from the Assembly for 9 months for ruckus during Budge

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar today said all the like-minded parties need to come together to counter the BJP.

He

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar today said all the like-minded parties need to come together to counter the BJP.

He

NCP President Sharad Pawar today asserted that his party will not bail out the BJP Government in Maharashtra if it is redu

Dedicating his Padma Vibhushan award to the farmers, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar today saluted his

Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], July 21 (ANI): Letting the speculations quitting the Congress to not fizzle out, vet

MLAs

Mumbai, Jul 20 (PTI) At least six MLAs of the Congress and NCP in the Maharashtra Assembly seem to have voted f

Nagpur, Jul 15 (PTI) The Muslim man who was thrashed by cow vigilantes in Nagpur district of Maharashtra three days ago wa

Jammu, Jul 11 (PTI) The Jammu region today witnessed a complete shutdown, led by at least 13 political parties and other o

Mumbai, Jun 24 (PTI) The BJP-led Maharashtra government today unveiled a mega Rs 34,022-crore farm loan waiver scheme that

Gandhinagar, Jun 20 (PTI) Sulking Congress veteran Shankarsinh Vaghela today said he is not in the race for chief minister

New Delhi, Jun 16 (PTI) The government today reached out to the opposition on the presidential election with Union ministe

Mumbai, Jun 14 (PTI) The Congress and Shiv Sena have decided to come together in Malegaon Municipal Corporation (MMC) in N

Mumbai, Jun 9 (PTI) The NCP today claimed that the BJP threw a party in a five-star hotel over completion of three-years i

Mumbai, Jun 9 (PTI) The NCP today claimed that the BJP threw a party in a five-star hotel over completion of three-years i

R Jagannathan in the DNA  sticks his neck out:

Where there is confusion, the voter looks for clarity. The really big question is about Raj Thackeray. Will his MNS eat into Sena-BJP votes the way it did in the Lok Sabha elections? The answer to this will decide whether the combine will win or lose. My personal hunch is that the Raj vs Uddhav battle is not happening this time; it will happen only after the election. Uddhav has pitched this battle as Bal Thackeray vs Raj and the rest, and in this battle it is not certain that Raj will have the upper hand.

On balance, this election is the Sena-BJP's to lose. Unlike the MNS, it is a serious
contender for power, and has a strong anti-incumbency vote to harvest. If it doesn't goof up somewhere, it has a clear chance this time.

Read the full piece at DNA: Tiger Tales

Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Krishnan Srinivasan says "Indians cannot even bear different interpretations of history". But he seems to have got some of his facts wrong about, presumably, the the book by James Laine:

Speculation about Shivaji’s paternity — that too, by a foreigner —provoked the then BJP prime minister in 2004 to ‘warn’ the author, caused an oriental research institute in Pune to be looted by party loyalists, the book to be banned India-wide, and the Maharashtra government to ask for the author’s arrest through Interpol. The same state government, apparently on a legal complaint by a Shivaji descendant, banned yet another book by the same author in 2006. [More here]

For as Arun Shourie pointed out in his Humpty Dumpty interview and was widely reported at that time, Mr Atal behari Vajpayee had actually opposed the ban. The Telegraph itself had reported on January 17, 2004 as follows:

He took the opportunity to hit out at the violent protests against James Laine’s controversial book Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India and the government’s decision to ban it.

“If you are unhappy with certain sections in a book, sit down and talk about it,’’ the Prime Minister said. “Banning it and destroying it is not the answer. This is not how things should be.”

On January 19, 2004, the Telegraph had another report which explained the background of the Sambhaji Brigade, which had ransacked the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune on January 5:

Marauders belonging to the group, which champions the Maratha cause like the Shiv Sena but was started to counter Bal Thackeray’s outfit

The same report had also explained, once again:

On a visit to Mumbai on Friday, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee condemned the attack and the ban on the book announced by the Congress-led coalition of Maharashtra.

Thus, basically, it was an organisation close to Mr Sharad Pawar's NCP that was behind the attack and it was the Congress-led government in Maharashtra that banned the book. Writing for Outlook website, Dilip Chitre had recounted the role played by the then Maharashtra home minister in the whole sorry episode.

But, there is no arguing with Mr Srinivasan's larger point:

What would be the public reaction if the characters and careers of iconic figures like Rabindranath Tagore, Maulana Azad or Subhas Chandra Bose were to be deconstructed and demolished? Will India be forever prone to emotional convulsions, and could our enemies be tempted deliberately to use historical biography to divide our society?