A group of miscreants waving saffron flags and shouting pro-Shiv Sena slogans barged into The Times of India building on Saturday and vandalized the reception area before the police took charge of the situation. The attackers claimed to be upset with a news report in Maharashtra Times, a Marathi morninger belonging to The Times Group of publications.
The attackers appeared angry with a report about possible defections from the Shiv Sena to NCP, a party which is an ally in state's ruling Democratic Front alliance.
The mob broke furniture in the lobby, smashed pots, windowpanes and computers, and also burnt copies of Maharashtra Times. The attackers appeared angry with a Maharashtra Times report about possible defections from the Shiv Sena to the NCP, a party which is an ally in state's Maharashtra's ruling Democratic Front (DF) alliance.
Sena strategist Sanjay Raut, an MP and close acolyte of party chief Bal Thackeray, denied the Shiv Sena's involvement in the attack on The Times of India building in Mumbai on Saturday.
Despite the denial, Congress chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said, "The Sena seems to have lost its sense of confidence and security even in Mumbai. That, perhaps, explains the desperate attempts to whip up passion." NCP home minister R R Patil said, "We will take action against senior Shiv Sena leaders who instigated their workers to attack the TOI office. We will entrust the case to a fast-track court."
The Congress and NCP have formed an alliance to fight the elections to the BMC, which is currently ruled by the Sena-BJP combine. Chavan said that in view of the ensuing civic polls, it appears the party that controls the BMC has lost confidence. Even the Sena's estranged cousin, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, which has been known to flex its muscles when the situation demands, criticized the attack.
The Azad Maidan police had arrested 19 people by the evening as word came from the chief minister's office to deal with the situation with an iron hand. There were 11 detentions. The attack happened at around 1.30 p.m. TOI security personnel initially tried to overpower the attackers, but found themselves heavily outnumbered and could not prevent them from entering the building. The mob vandalized the reception area, breaking computers and furniture and flowerpots that lined the reception bay. Calls were made to the local police station, from where cops came and pushed the mob out of the building. The cops then threw a tight security ring around the TOI's heritage structure.
Anandrao Adsul, a Sena leader mentioned in a Maharashtra Times report about possibl;e defections from the party to NCP, justified the incident. "What happened was a reaction to a misleading news report," Adsul said. Others, however, read desperation in the strong-arm tactics. Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said, "No one can control the media by such attacks. The attack is an indication that the Sena is losing ground in Mumbai and other parts of the state."
The Sena recently saw its MP from Kalyan, Anand Paranjpe, hobnob with the NCP and even campaign for the party in the run-up to the Ulhasnagar polls.
The Sena has down the years suffered a slew of defections from the party. Chhagan Bhujbal left in 1991 and was followed by Ganesh Naik. Narayan Rane revolted in 2005 and joined the Congress. But the biggest setback came from within the family when Raj Thackeray left to float the MNS in 2006. The MNS has been one of the biggest headaches for the Sena-BJP alliance. The way it spliced anti-Congress votes in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls led to a whitewash for the saffron brigade in Mumbai.
A Sena observer said, "The Sena over the last several years has seen many of its senior functionaries defecting to rival parties. Matoshree is fast losing its control over the city. And with Congress and NCP inking an alliance for the BMC polls, the Sena fears it may lose the country's richest civic body." CM Chavan said, "I strongly condemned the attack on Maharashtra Times. In a democratic set-up, if one has a grudge, he can knock on doors of the editor or the court. But an attack on a newspaper office is unacceptable.