Shiv Sena

First, they got a Ghulam Ali concert in Mumbai cancelled because of his nationality. Next, they smeared black paint on the organiser of the launch of Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri’s latest book. The person attacked, Sudheendra Kulkarni, a former aide of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, spent much of the day in front of television cameras, his face blackened by paint, defending his stance.

The party’s actions might have got it some cheap air-time, but what it also did was give Kasuri’s book Neither a Hawk Nor a Dove enormous publicity, which couldn’t have been on its agenda.