MNS pokes fun at Big B through poster

Press Trust of India
Thursday, March 27, 2008 (Mumbai)
The MNS has again stepped up its attack on superstar Amitabh Bachchan, this time indirectly through a poster, mocking at him for going back on his decision to donate his agricultural land to farmers in Pune district.Though the Shiv Sena's breakaway outfit did not name Big B in the posters, the insinuation was clear. The huge poster in Marathi showed a sketch of a man saying in Marathi ''Majhe daan parat kara'' (return my donation). In the bottom it wrote ''Superstar Shetkari'' (superstar farmer).The cartoon posters were put up on Wednesday night in Dadar areas. However, they were missing on Thursday. The MNS claimed that the police had removed them.Commenting on the posters, an MNS spokesman denied that the party was making fun of Big B and said that it was only to express our happiness that if a superstar can become a farmer, then it only indicates better and glamorous days for the farmers of India. Perhaps it might even halt farmers' suicides.The MNS swipe on Big B comes in the wake of latter's move to go back on his decision to donate the farm land which he bought in Pune from the farmers. In a letter addressed to the Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) of Maval taluka on Tuesday, the actor had said he wanted to unconditionally withdraw his earlier decision to donate the land to the original owners.This is for the second time that Big B has become a target of MNS. The first time MNS targeted the superstar at a function last month when its leader Raj Thackeray alleged that Big B was more loyal to his home state Uttar Pradesh than Maharashtra.


It's OK for the MNS to take digs at a public superstar with some cartooning. Cartoons never harmed any one (Oops, not those Danish cartoons!). But physically targeting anyone with a parochial ideology is unacceptable.