India, July 15 -- Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde finally showed his ministers, MLAs and party functionaries who's boss. At a meeting in Mumbai on Monday, Shinde pulled up his flock, saying, "People don't point fingers at you; they point them at me and ask: what are your MLAs up to?"

The sharp reprimand follows a series of incidents involving Sena MLAs that have cast the party in a poor light ahead of crucial local body elections scheduled for later this year. While some Sena MLAs have been using their fists to do the talking, others have threatened to "sever the tongue" and "break the legs" of opposition politicians, displays widely seen as false bravado.

"Public life demands discipline, and we must uphold it. I expect discipline and acc...