MERSAL Plea junked: BJP's politics of intolerance

• After the death of Jayalalithaa in December, the BJP saw an opportunity to widen its base in Tamil Nadu.
• The controversy it created over the recent movie MERSAL, starring superstar Vijay, has brought to the fore: communal politics, intolerance and criticism.
• The character played by Vijay questions the effectiveness of the newly introduced GST.
• Instead of engaging ideas about these questions, the BJP decided to vilify Vijay. It threatened to launch protests and file court cases if the scenes were not removed. This led to massive public support for Vijay on social media. 
• The film’s producers tried to placate the BJP by meeting its Tamil Nadu leaders and even agreeing to remove the scenes if they misrepresented facts. But the enormous demonstration of support gave them the confidence to retain the sequences.
• Failed to browbeat the producers, the BJP pushed a communal line to discredit the actor by referring his full name, Joseph Vijay. 
• Stunningly, the actor’s offices were searched by the Income Tax department ostensibly because his company had failed to deposit with the authorities tax it had deducted at source for payments made to clients.
• With the economy being jolted by last year’s demonetisation and the choppy implementation of GST in July, the BJP has come under severe criticism. Rather than setting out to remedy the problems, the party is trying to gag criticism through intimidation. 
• By trying to demonise Vijay by invoking religion and misusing official machinery to intimidate opposing voices, the party is only exposing itself and undermining its position in Tamil Nadu.

The Madras High Court rejected a petition to ban the film, stating, "It is only a film and not real life. Freedom of expression is for all. If you don't like it; don't watch it". Earlier, Veteran actors Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan have come out in support of Mersal, praising it for addressing critical issues. Expecting bigger things of democracy from BJP is insanity, which is fundamentally a communal and autocratic party.