September 07, 2014
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CPI(M) Pune Office Attacked By RSS Hoodlums

AT around 2.30 pm on September 2, a gang of around 15-20 hoodlums attacked the CPI(M) and CITU office at Narayan Peth in Pune city. They damaged the furniture, tore up papers related to the ongoing struggle of unorganised workers and threatened the handful of Party activists who were in the office at the time. They said that this attack was in retaliation to the murder of an RSS activist in Kannur in Kerala the previous day. CPI(M) state secretary Dr Ashok Dhawale and state secretariat member Ajit Abhyankar immediately issued media statements denouncing the cowardly attack by RSS goons, demanding their immediate arrest and calling for statewide joint protest demonstrations by Left, democratic and secular forces to condemn this attack. Accordingly, strong protest actions took place on September 3 in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Solapur, Thane-Palghar, Beed, Kolhapur, Sangli and many other districts in the state. Leaders of the CPI, PWP, JD(S) and other democratic and secular organisations condemned the attack and participated in the protest actions. The issue received prominent statewide coverage in both the print and electronic media. It may be recalled that the renowned rationalist and socialist Dr Narendra Dabholkar was assassinated in Pune on August 20 last year and his assassins are still at large. The young Muslim techie Mohsin Shaikh was also killed in Pune by goons of the Hindu Rashtra Sena three months ago on June 2, a week after the ascension to power of the BJP-led Narendra Modi government at the centre.