3 Days After Bihar: ED Grills SRK, Karnad Gets Death Threat'.

NEW DELHI: Barely three days after the Bihar Assembly results, the guns are firing at dissenters again. After major violence hit the streets on the Tipu Sultan anniversary celebrations organised by the Karnataka government, well known writer, actor and filmmaker Girish Karnad has received a death threat on the social media,an Enforcement Directorate team grilled actor Shahrukh Khan for three hours at his Mumbai residence, and the trolls re-emerged on the social media hitting out at all and sundry seen as part of the dissent against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government.

Minister Nitin Gadkari said that action should be taken against the old BJP guard. "The Bihar debacle is the collective responsibility of the party and not of any individual. I have told party chief Shah to initiate stringent action against those making irresponsible statements and causing damage to the party's image," Gadkari said.

"We are not a party of mother-son, father-son. Neither are we a party of a specific family. The BJP is a party of cadres. It's not a party of any leader. When we win, the party wins and when we lose, the party gets defeated," Gadkari told reporters.

Shahrukh Khan who is one of the very few Bollywood actors to speak out against intolerance received a summons from the Enforcement Directorate on Diwali day. This came after Khan spoke out against the growing atmosphere of intolerance against the country, and attracted vitriol on the social media. Leaders from the BJP and its affiliates attacked him as well, saying he should go to Pakistan.

Khan was grilled for over four hours at the ED’s regional headquarters in South Mumbai on the t sale of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team shares at alleedly lower prices to a Mauritius based company in 2009. Khan reportedly told the officials that in 2009, the IPL and KKR were not profit making ventures and accordingly they evaluated the share prices at that point of time. He denied any wrongdoing in the process and stated that valuation of shares increased afterwards.

A senior opposition leader not willing to be quoted at this point saying he was only sharing initial thoughts after the Bihar elections, felt that a decision had been taken in the BJP and the RSS not to brook dissent at any level. “The decision seems to be to go ahead with the Hindutva agenda regardless, and mow down anyone---even the BJP veterans---if they come in the way,” he said insisting, however, that he was voicing a ‘gut’ response, and did not have confirmation of this.Sources agreed that the ED action was a “message’ to other high profile Bollywood stars not to take “political” positions.

Jnanpith award-winning playwright Girish Karnad has now received a death threat from an anonymous Twitter handle ‘Intolerant Chandra’ saying, "Girish Karnad will meet the same end like kalburgi if he enrages kannadigas by replacing in Kempe gouda (sic) with Tipu Sultan," read the tweet from anonymous Twitter user 'Intolerant Chandra'. This was later deleted by the user.

Karnad’s crime? Supporting the Karnataka governments Tipu Sultan Jayanti celebrations with a suggestion that Bengaluru's Kempegowda International airport should be renamed after the ‘Tiger of Mysore.’ And remarks, "If Tipu had been a Hindu and not Muslim, he would have attained the position in Karnataka that Shivaji Maharaj enjoys in Maharashtra.”

The death threat has clearly created pressure, with Karnad apologising subsequently saying the intention was not to hurt anyone’s sentiments."If anybody has been hurt by my remarks, I apologize.... What will I gain by giving such comments?" The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has organised a protest against him.