E-Paper
Attack on Saif Ali Khan shows collapsing law and order in Mumbai: Opposition
Sharad Pawar said that the attack on Khan shows how the law and order in Mumbai is collapsing and urged the state government to take it seriously
It wasn’t long before the knife attack on actor Saif Ali Khan on Thursday took a political turn, as opposition parties in Maharashtra came down heavily on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti government over the incident.
Much of the criticism was directed towards chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who heads the state home department.
While Fadnavis said the home department had taken the incident seriously and would take steps to make Mumbai safer, opposition leaders attacked the chief minister over what they said was crumbling law and order in the megapolis, pointing to the murder of the late former MLA Baba Siddiqui and the shooting outside actor Salman Khan’s home last year.
Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar said that the attack on Khan shows how the law and order in Mumbai is collapsing and urged the state government to take it seriously. He also pointed out that Siddiqui was murdered in the same area of the city, Bandra.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Aaditya Thackeray took to X to criticise the government.
“The intrusion and knife attack on Saif Ali Khan is shocking. We are relieved to hear that he is stable and recovering, and we pray that tough times are over, and he bounces back to normalcy at the earliest,” he wrote.
Thackeray also trained his guns on the state home department. “The fact that it happened, however, only highlights the absolute shambles of law and order in Maharashtra. Over the past 3 years, hit-and-run cases, actors and politicians being threatened and cases like those in Beed and Parbhani only show that the government has been an absolute failure in curbing crime and maintaining law and order. Do we have anyone in the government that cares about citizen safety at all?” he added.
His party colleague Sanjay Raut said there is “no fear of law in this state” and “no one is safe”.
State Congress chief Nana Patole termed the incident a glaring example of the breakdown of law and order in Maharashtra. “If such incidents occur in the bustling area of Bandra in Mumbai, who is safe in the city? The chief minister and home minister, Devendra Fadnavis, along with their favoured director general of police, have proven to be utterly ineffective. Despite having two police commissioners in Mumbai, neither the state nor Mumbai has effective law and order. Fadnavis has failed as Home Minister. In Maharashtra, celebrities, leaders of the ruling party, and common citizens alike are unsafe,” he said.
Mumbai Congress chief and MP Varsha Gaikwad, whose parliamentary constituency includes Bandra, said, “I appeal to the chief minister to get this inquired and ensure such incidents don’t happen. First, Baba Siddiqui was murdered in Bandra East. Second, people fired at Salman Khan’s house in Bandra West, and now Saif Ali Khan has been attacked.’’
NCP (SP) MLA Jitendra Awhad claimed that the attack on Saif Ali Khan could be a part of a larger conspiracy as the actor had earlier been targeted for naming his son Taimur, adding that it is necessary to investigate whether the attack was carried out by religious fundamentalists.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s Mumbai president, Preeti Sharma Menon, said that law and order in Mumbai has deteriorated under the BJP.
“If the elite can be attacked in their homes, what safety can the aam aadmi (common man) hope for?” she added.
Fadnavis responded to the criticism later in the day and rejected the opposition’s claims that Mumbai is unsafe.
Addressing the media after attending a film screening in the Bandra Kurla Complex, the chief minister said, “Among all megacities in India, Mumbai is the safest. Sometimes, incidents happen and we have to take them seriously, but one can’t say Mumbai is unsafe. Steps will be taken to make Mumbai safer,” he said.
BJP legislators Ram Kadam and Pravin Darekar also defended the state government. Kadam termed Khan’s injuries minor and said the police would take steps to avoid such incidents in the future. Darekar, meanwhile, urged the opposition not to politicise the incident.
Khan, 54, underwent surgery on Thursday after suffering six stab wounds, two of which were deep, with one located near his spine, according to a statement from Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital. The actor was repeatedly stabbed in an apparent burglary at his home in Bandra, his public relations team said.
