The workers had assembled in front of Sena headquarters in Dadar protesting against the lifting of ban on Laine’s book “Shivaji: The Hindu King in Islamic India” by the Supreme Court on Friday.
Police removed the blockades on the road and seized the effigy of Laine before Sena workers could set it ablaze. More than 120 Sena workers were detained by police.
Meanwhile, opposition parties at the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly boycotted a meeting called by Chief Minister Ashok Chavan Sunday evening.
Speaking to Arab News, Eknath Khadse, a senior BJP leader who is also the Leader of the opposition in the assembly said the opposition parties decided to boycott the meeting to protest the failure of the Congress-led government in handling a number of issues. “The state government has miserably failed to arrest criminals involved in the German Bakery bomb blast in Pune and to resolve the border dispute with Karnataka apart from handling the issue of the lifting of ban on James Laine’s book.”
According to political analysts, the assembly session could be stormy and the opposition has planned a strategy to give the Chavan government a tough time over border issue with Karnataka.
The opposition would also attack the government for the mess in Education Department. It will also take up the issue of mismanagement at the Directorate of Medical Education and Research headed by NCP’s controversial minister Dr. Vijay Kumar Gavit and in the Public Health Department (PHD) headed by Congress minister Suresh Shetty.
The infighting in these two departments has exposed the tussle between the Congress and its ally, the NCP. The fallout of this was seen on Saturday when the judge of the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal passed strictures against the PHD and asked the government to maintain status quo on the transfers of 480 doctors of the PHD who were shunted out of 14 government hospitals affiliated to medical colleges and their posts subsequently abolished.
