Exercise restraint, Aaditya Thackeray tells Sena members

The man, in a Facebook post, berated Thackeray for comparing the police action on Jamia Millia Islamia students protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act with the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919

Shiv Sena MLA Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday asked party workers to exercise restrain in dealing with trolls, a day after some party workers tonsured a man for posting a derogatory message on social media against Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

The man, in a Facebook post, berated Thackeray for comparing the police action on Jamia Millia Islamia students protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act with the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.

Some Sena functionaries later beat him up and tonsured his head outside his residence in Wadala.

Reacting to it, Aaditya Thackeray, in a statement, asked Sena workers to follow the chief minister. "Calm, composed, aggressive about delivering promises and serving the people. Let's win people. Trolls lose anyway," said the Worli MLA who is the chief minister's son.

He said the Shiv Sena should focus on silencing the chaos, divisions, fear, hate by drawing a "longer line" that works for the people and keeps them united.

"Our answer is to create jobs and revive the economy," he pointed out.

"Law and order is a subject of police and shouldn't be taken by anyone into his/her hands. Answering trolls who are nasty, threatening and abusive should not be our job," Aaditya Thackeray said.

In a veiled attack on the BJP, the MLA said their behaviour has been rejected by democratic India in the recent elections and their retreat has been witnessed by the country. "These are the same persons who threaten people, call them names and are social media lynch mobs," he said, without naming anyone.

This is intolerance: BJP

The opposition BJP on Tuesday sought to project the assault on the Mumbai man and the trolling of Amruta Fadnavis, former CM Devendra Fadnavis's wife for her tweets against the Sena chief as "intolerance" towards Hindus, and sought intervention of Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!