Former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya is fighting a two-and-a-half-front war. He has been relentlessly campaigning against illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants living in Mumbai. More recently, he has been on a drive to shut down thousands of loudspeakers, unregistered and playing at rule-breaking decibel levels, mostly from mosques.

After his campaign, the Mumbai police removed more than 1,500 illegal loudspeakers overwhelmingly from masjids but also a few mandirs and gurdwaras in just three months.

“We initiated a campaign after the Mumbai High Court issued directives about the use of such speakers. Almost 99 per cent masjids had never obtained or applied for loudspeaker permission till the High Court order," Somaiya said. But after the police action, more than 600 masjids and their trustees have applied for permission.

Somaiya’s half-front war is against his party’s own allies in the NDA, like Ajit Pawar, who........

© News18