Flashback 2015: Another colour of intolerance

The book launch of former Pakistan foreign affairs minister Khurshid Kasuri in Mumbai snowballed into a major political controversy of 2015. Chairman of Observer Research Foundation Sudheendra Kulkarni, who was the organiser of the event, had refused to cancel it despite stiff opposition from Shiv Sena. Frustrated Shiv Sena activists then poured black oil paint on Mr Kulkarni on the morning of October 11. Mr Kulkarni attended the book launch function with the blackened face in the evening on the same day.

The Sena’s stand about Pakistan was not new. The Sena had always opposed dialogue with Pakistan and remained firm on its demand that there should be no dialogue with Pakistan until the country stops cross-border terrorism against India.

Earlier in the same month, the Sena had also forced the cancellation of Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali’s concert in Mumbai. The Sena tried to justify its stand against Mr Kasuri by recalling his statements against India when he was the foreign minister of Pakistan. Sena also tried to gather public support for its stand. However, as Mr Kulkarni remained firm on his stand, Sena threatened to disrupt the book launch

programme. The programme was held amid tight security. Mr Kulkarni widened the gap between BJP and Shiv Sena after the Shiv Sainiks blackened his face. He smartly underpinned that he was still a loyal BJP worker though he is not active in the party. He faced the media with a blackened face in order to “expose the intolerance of Shiv Sena”.

Amidst the controversy, Mr Kasuri’s book Neither a Hawk nor a Dove also received a lot of publicity, but later got bad reviews from book critics. Mr Kulkarni was also invited to Pakistan by Mr Kasuri to attend the launch of his book in Pakistan.

Last week, Mr Kulkarni hosted an event in which Hameed Haroon, CEO of Dawn Media Group, was asked to participate in a discussion on ‘India and Pakistan: How to make the recent breakthrough in bilateral talks irreversible’, organised in Mumbai. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Kulkarni said rulers of both the countries should realise that India is the future of Pakistan and Pakistan the future of India. “Our common enemy is poverty and backwardness,” he said.

“We should collaborate to eradicate them and also fight terrorism. If terrorism is killing people in Pakistan we should show solidarity,” he said.

Mr Kulkarni also spoke of launching a ‘peace boat’ between Karachi and Mumbai as a step towards improving bilateral ties and suggested Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray should visit Pakistan to have better understanding of the neighbouring country. The Shiv Sena, however, dismissed him saying they didn’t know who was Sudheendra Kulkarni.