Mumbai, June 13
The Shiv Sena, which has a history of damaging newspaper offices and assaulting journalists, got a dose of its own medicine when supporters of rebel-turned-Congress leader Narayan Rane allegedly attacked the offices of its mouthpiece Saamna in many parts of Maharashtra.
The police said supporters of Rane actually managed to smash Saamna's offices in Pune last night. In other parts of the state, stones were flung at the newspaper's offices though the presence of police personnel and Shiv Sena activists prevented Rane's men from damaging the newspaper's headquarters in Mumbai.
The provocation for the attack was a caricature of Rane as a coy newly wed confused bride, which portrayed him wearing a saree apparently stepping into the threshold of the Congress party.
The Shiv Sena was gloating at a remark made by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh who likened Rane to a new bride who came in with the intention of ruling her in-laws’ house but settled down to domesticity.
Rane, who has been aspiring for the post of Chief Minister ever since his entry into the Congress party more than two years ago, has not been able to make much headway so far.
But clearly Saamna's caricature of Rane hit him where it hurt. The former Shiv Sena Chief Minister told reporters in Mumbai today that he would react to Saamna's caricature in the next few days.
Today, Saamna reacted to the attack on its offices by reprinting the same caricature and justified it by saying that it was true to the Maharashtrian media's tradition of parody and caricature. The party has been praising Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh for his description of Rane.
Meanwhile, the police has arrested some 30 supporters of Rane for damaging Saamna's Pune offices.
