After storming into the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) head office in Mumbai, to protest BCCI officials meeting with Pakistan Cricket Board Chief Shahryar Khan, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut has defended his party’s move by saying that law was taken into hands against Pakistan and was not any sort of theft and robbery.

Shahryar Khan and the head of the PCB’s executive committee Najam Sethi arrived in India on Sunday in a bid to get the India-Pakistan cricket series slated for December 2015 back on track.

This is third such protest against Pakistan in one month and is a major embarrassment for the BJP-led government in Maharashtra.

Last week, Shiv Sena workers smeared black paint on Sudheendra Kulkarni’s face for organising former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri’s book launch in Mumbai. Earlier Pakistan ghazal maestro Ghulam Ali’s concert was cancelled in Mumbai and Pune after Sena threatened to disrupt it.

Uddhav Thackeray | Source: PTI

Uddhav Thackeray’s image as a leader and approach towards issues was deemed to be completely contradictory to his father Bal Thackeray’s style, but the recent attacks stand testimony to the fact that Shiv Sena is back to its old ways and that can never be good.

Regardless of all the changes that the party is apparently going through, bragging about taking law into hands is only going to harm their image as a national party.