The brutal rape and killing of a toddler in Pune’s Nasrapur village has drawn fiery condemnation from MNS president Raj Thackeray, who on Tuesday ripped into the Maharashtra government’s handling of women’s safety. Demanding the culprits face the gallows without legal loopholes, Thackeray highlighted the irony of rapid police action against demonstrators versus the leniency towards rapists.
In an emotional X post, he mourned the loss of Maharashtra’s legacy as a beacon for female empowerment. Statistics show abductions and assaults on women surging annually, signaling a complete erosion of fear of law among criminals.
Delving deeper, Thackeray linked the crime wave to societal rot sparked by 1995’s pivotal shift post-liberalization. ‘We reaped economic gains but failed to grasp democracy or liberalization, obliterating our value system and birthing narcissism and avarice,’ he observed.
He decried the pervasive power hunger—from political corridors to literary meets—that trickles down, turning even the marginalized into predators. Nostalgic for times when community watchdogs enforced decorum via social stigma, Thackeray blamed modern vices like OTT sensationalism and gadget obsession for amplifying depravity.
Thackeray called for urgent systemic overhaul, pressing authorities to instill dread in offenders and restore Maharashtra’s direction. Committing MNS to this cause, he emphasized that half-measures like performative fast-tracking won’t suffice; only decisive action can avert future horrors.
