Rahul Raj, a youth boy from Patna, who had come to Mumbai searching for a job, was seething with anger as he brandished a pistol from the window of the BEST double decker bus on Monday morning.
He apparently wanted to send a message to MNS leader Raj Thackeray but we will never be able to know what he exactly had on his mind. He had repeatedly told co-passengers that he won't harm them. The Mumbai police shot him dead in an 'encounter'.
Though he was involved in a criminal act, the way he was shot at, has left questions on the ability of police in dealing with such situations. It appeared more of a panic gripped police force's knee-jerk reaction, just like a Brazil guy was shot dead by British police that had mistook him as a terrorist.
More shocking was the response of Maharashtra police and state government. RR Patil said that 'bullet would be answered with a bullet'. Somebody needs to remind him that it is no imperial British government and we are no longer 'native blacks'.
Now Bihar leaders Ram Vilas Paswan, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar have come together over the issue to apparently seek political mileage. The bus number 332 was on way from Kurla to Andheri when Rahul Raj took out his pistol. The boy with an innocent face appeared angry, not just angry, but enraged over something.
He was asking cell phone and wanted to talk to Raj Thackeray. Later reports suggested that he hijacked the bus to get Raj to talk to him. Also, he had fired barely a bullet contrary to police claims. Senior Mumbai police officials held that as Rahul held the bus hostage, he had to be shot dead.
Was he angry at the state of affairs in the country where Raj Thackeray flirts with law and lives with ease just because he is a politician and supposedly 'high and mighty' but an ordinary youth is beaten up for his belonging to Bihar or Uttar Pradesh (or even gunned down on the street by the same police).
The same police that doesn't dare to act against Thackeray and is uneasy even at serving warrants against him for terrorising millions, can of course murder a youth with such ease!
The old saying: Show me the man and I will show the rule, certainly holds true in this nation.
