Condemning the attack on veteran Communist leader Govind Pansare in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district, the Shiv Sena on Tuesday targeted the State government led by its own ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying the law and order situation was deteriorating.
“The Congress and the NCP were in power when Dabholkar [rationalist Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, who was murdered a year ago in Pune] was killed and the government was criticised bitterly for that. But now who will take the responsibility for this deadly attack which took place in broad daylight?” asked an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamna. The Sena shares power both in the State and at the Centre with the BJP.
Interestingly, Maharashtra does not have a full-time Home Minister and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis himself is handling this department. The Sena’s attack on law and order is also considered as a veiled attempt to target the BJP’s Chief Minister, whom according to sources, the Sena holds responsible for not letting it work freely despite being part of the government.
“Had it been the other government, we would have raised hell against it. But cries of deteriorating law and order in the State and claims of criminals running free will go against our own government,” the editorial taunted the BJP.
Claiming that many consider criticising rituals in Hinduism as being progressive, the Sena said that even Comrade Pansare was a ‘progressive’ of that sort. “But he has absolute right to say what he wants and no one can kill this freedom by attacking him in such a cowardly manner,” it said.
Advising the government that it must act to discourage such cowardly attackers, the Sena editorial said that despite Mr. Pansare being an opponent of Hindutva and making speeches against Nathuram Godse, his dedication to social wellbeing could not be discarded. “He was a man of the masses. Maharashtra has a tradition of countering thoughts by thoughts only. Attack on Comrade Pansare is an attack on this tradition,” the editorial said.
