Is Mumbai underworld returning to target Bollywood? What Urdu Press says on Jantar Mantar stir, Tiger Shroff firing, and UP poll strategy
From Delhi’s Jantar Mantar to Mumbai‘s Juhu. Two stories that made headlines in the Urdu dailies through the week were the government’s decision to denotify Jantar Mantar as a protest site and the shooting at actor Tiger Shroff in Juhu in which he escaped unhurt. While the dailies kept the focus on the Abhijeet Dipke-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) – which led a “Lehra Do Tiranga” stir in central Delhi in the face of security curbs – and its jailed leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, the follow-up stories in the Tiger Shroff case along with the Mumbai underworld’s lengthening shadows over Bollywood also remained in the spotlight.
INQUILAB
Commenting on Delhi Police’s order denotifying Jantar Mantar as a protest site and declaring three new venues — Ramlila Maidan in central Delhi, Burari Ground in north Delhi, and CBD Ground in east Delhi — as the designated protest sites, the New Delhi edition of Inquilab, in its October 14 editorial, points to the police statement that its decision was based on the recommendations of a committee constituted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). “Can the historic significance of Jantar Mantar as a protest venue be neutralised by the authorities? Also, the question is, why an established hub of dissent, which has been the venue of countless protests on the entire gamut of issues over decades, has been stripped of its defining identity?” it asks.
The edit wonders whether the government has resorted to this move after being rattled by the wave of recent protests against the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The government may not want these protests to be held near the seat of power in the national capital, it says. “When central Delhi was recently locked down and barricaded by the police and central security personnel, many protesters, both old and Gen Z activists, made the point that the government could not bar them from holding agitation at Jantar Mantar. This might have led the government to target the site itself.”
A crucial question arising from the row is, “If a protest is a fundamental democratic right, how could the government fix an address for it?” asks the daily. Rejecting the grounds of traffic and public mobility for denotifying Jantar Mantar, it asks whether several major mass protests, including the Anna Hazare-led agitation for a Lokpal law, have not taken place at the site during the tenure of the previous Congress-led government. “The new agitation venues have effectively been pushed to the fringes of Delhi. The MHA should review its decision. If dissent is the bedrock of a democracy, why should its path be made so difficult.”
URDU TIMES
Referring to the firing at Tiger Shroff’s car in Juhu, the Mumbai-based Urdu Times, in its October 20 editorial, claims that the metropolis had made a comeback to the list of the country’s peaceful cities some time back after its organised crime syndicates were virtually eradicated. “Now, however, Mumbai seems to have returned to the days when its underworld haunted Bollywood. Over the decades, the Mumbai mafias built up a climate of fear that terrorised its denizens. There were mobsters who used to call the shots even as the city reeled from gang wars. Some of the gangs were headed by Varadarajan, Fazlu, Shetty, Arun Gawli, and Dawood Ibrahim or D-company,” it notes. “The Mumbai police was not able to tackle these crime networks for a long time, but it finally got a grip on the menace.”
The daily points out that in the wake of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, most of the city’s gangsters escaped from the country. “Since then, initially, sections of traders, realtors and the film industry members faced extortion and protection threats from the underworld, but even this trend also declined significantly until the recent entry of the Bishnoi gang into Mumbai’s scene, which also operates overseas,”
it says, adding that shots were fired at star Salman Khan’s residence earlier.
The editorial refers to Bishnoi’s US-based handler Anil Pandit who has claimed responsibility for the firing at Tiger Shroff and asked Salman to apologise to Bishnoi in the black buck matter. “Mumbai police succeeded in getting the three assailants in the Tiger Shroff case arrested from a train in Rajasthan’s Kota within 24 hours,” the edit notes, adding that the police now faces the formidable challenge posed by the gang of Bishnoi, who has been lodged in the high-security Sabarmati jail in Gujarat.
SIASAT
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With barely four months to go for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the Congress has also, like some other major contenders, turned its focus on its poll preparations in the most politically-crucial state, says the Hyderabad-based Siasat in its October 21 leader. The Congress, which had managed to win just two of the state’s 403 seats in the 2022 elections, seems keen on improving its fortunes in the 2027 battle. “The Congress leadership is weighing its strengths and weaknesses in UP, assessing the situation on the ground, consulting its state leaders, and firming up its planks to take on the ruling BJP in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP),” the editorial says, adding that both the INDIA bloc partners are now going to start their seat-sharing negotiations.
The daily states that the Congress leadership has mandated party national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi to handle its seat-sharing talks with the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP. “This is a prudent step, given the friction between the leaders of the two allies at the state level. Besides bringing a decisive leadership to the negotiating table, Priyanka could also galvanise her party’s rank and file in the state before mounting the campaign,” it says.
The Congress has acknowledged the SP’s key role in steering their coalition which had pulled off success in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in the state, says the editorial, adding that the BJP seems to be grappling with “anti-incumbency” in the state and at the central level. “With Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi trying to lead the Opposition at the national level, Priyanka would be the party’s face in the UP polls, who has her task cut out.”
