Faced with mounting pressure on his government to produce results following the death of veteran Communist leader and activist Govind Pansare, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday assured that no effort would be spared to nab Mr. Pansare’s killers.
Speaking in Nashik, Mr. Fadnavis said Mr. Pansare’s shooting was an attack on Maharashtra’s administrative set-up.
“The attack has sullied the State’s progressive tradition. This attitude will not be tolerated in a State where everyone has the right to express their opinion.”
At the same time, the Chief Minister said it was unfair to blame investigative agencies conducting the probe.
“We have come up with sketches of the suspected assailants. I am confident the police will produce results soon,” he said.
Mr. Fadnavis, who was in Nashik to inaugurate a police building, was jeered by leftwing party activists. The police was compelled to detain more than a 100 CPI activists in a bid to control the restive throng.
Meanwhile, the death has quickly taken on a political hue with activists and leaders from opposing political parties categorically holding the Bharatiya Janata Party government responsible for the shooting on Mr. Pansare and his wife, Uma.
“The government paid no heed to the threats on Mr. Pansare’s life. This is a government headed by a party whose parent organisation [the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] subscribes to a virulent anti-communal and fundamentalist ideology bent on persecuting secular progressives,” said noted activist N.D. Patil.
Nationalist Congress Party Chief Sharad Pawar, who visited the J.J. Hospital in Mumbai to pay his last respects to Mr. Pansare, observed that the rise and dominance of extreme rightwing elements in Maharashtra was a disturbing trend.
“There are these forces that cannot combat ideas with ideas but resort to violence to quell contrarian thoughts,” said Mr. Pawar.
The Maharashtra government has so far constituted 35 police teams to track down the assailants. Apart from quizzing hundreds of persons with criminal records and retrieving three abandoned motorcycles which they suspect was used in the attack, the investigations has yet to yield significant results.
