The attack on the Pune city office of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was part of a larger scheme in the suppression of liberal elements, said the CPI (M) on Wednesday.
At a large rally called to condemn Tuesday’s vandalism of their Pune office, CPI (M) leader Ajit Abhyankar said that the “fascist forces” responsible for the murder of rationalist Dr. Narendra Dabholkar were behind the attack on their party office.
The rally commenced from the Omkareshwar Bridge where Dr. Dabholkar was killed a year ago.
“While the attack may have been in retaliation for the death of an RSS functionary in Kerala, the Sangh Parivar needs no excuse to wipe out our presence in the city,” said Mr. Abhyankar.
He remarked that Pune had always been “ideologically sensitive” in modern history, as a place where “Nathuram Godse’s ideology took root.”
“The ascension of the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre has unleashed a storm of unchecked violence on liberal and minority elements. Further, it has been observed that an attack in Pune in any form has had more impact. The city’s BJP MLA has even welcomed the incident,” asserted Mr. Abhyankar.
While sternly censuring the activities of the Sangh and its affiliates, it castigated the State government’s ineffectiveness for bringing the perpetrators of such offences to book.
A group of men, suspected to be Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activists, had stormed the CPI (M) office on Tuesday, smashing objects, wrecking furniture and destroying important documents in process.
Despite the Vishrambaug Wada police lodging an FIR, no arrests have been made so far.
Earlier in 2008, the CPI (M)’s Pune office was vandalized by nearly 40 persons, allegedly Sangh Parivar workers. Mr. Abhyankar himself had been physically assaulted by BJP workers in 1993.
