In the battle of political one-upmanship in Mumbai, the victim has yet again been a non-combatant. On the day Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena dropped its opposition to a television music show featuring Pakistani artistes, two other political outfits reportedly picked up the cudgel against it.
On Thursday night, two offices of channel Colors, which is to air the show 'Sur-Kshetra', were attacked in separate incidents. Its Andheri (E) operations office was vandalized around 8.30pm by 10 to 15 rod-wielding men, all of whom, the police assert, are Shiv Sainiks. A little later, around midnight, the network's Vile Parle office was pelted with stones by two bike-borne men ostensibly belonging to a little-known and newly launched group called Swaraj Sena.
For the Andheri violence, till late Friday evening, the police had arrested eight Sena workers on charges of "trespass and unlawful assembly". No arrests were made in the Vile Parle case. The police have deployed heavy bandobast at offices of Colors, which is to premier 'Sur-Kshetra' on Saturday. A musical contest, the show features eight vocalists from Pakistan and an equal number of Indian singers and playback singer Asha Bhosale as one of the judges.
"We are not sure if the attack on Colors office was orchestrated by Sainiks," said Shiv Sena MLC Anil Parab. "Still, those collaborating with Pakistani artistes should realize that they have hurt the sentiments of the people of this country. Particularly in the wake of the 26/11 attack, which the entire world knows was planned in Pakistan." Parab is the Vibhag Pramukh of Andheri where the Colors office was vandalized.
Ameya Khopkar of MNS' film wing, Chitrapat Karmachari Sena, said, "Shiv Sena is just trying to prove a point to us."
According to the police, the attack on Colors' Parsi Panchayat Road office in Andheri (East) lasted a few minutes but the damage was sizeable. "Around 8.30pm, a group of 10 to 15 men trooped into the office, which is used for auditions sometimes. The channel operates from its main office at Vile Parle, where it moved some months ago," said ACP Prakash Wadkar. "The attackers were armed with rods. They went on the rampage, smashing five monitors, a glass table in the reception passage and LG hard discs on the reception counter, all collectively worth Rs 40,000. They left in minutes. But their faces have been clearly captured on CCTV cameras." The security guard at the office, Deepak Bodse, is the complainant in the police case.
At 12.05am on Friday, two motorbike-borne men stopped on a flyover opposite the office of Viacom 18, which owns Colors, on Western Express Highway, and pelted stones at the building's glass facade. "Five windows on the second floor, worth Rs 2 lakh, were damaged," said a police official. The two men then fled.
The second attack's responsibility was claimed by Swaraj Sena, a political group headquartered in Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar, Ghatkopar, and headed by 24-year-old Swapnil Targe. "The Swaraj Sena will continue to oppose the participation of Pakistani artistes in the show. My party will not tolerate the presence of Pakistani artistes on Indian TV channels or in Bollywood," Targe told TOI. "My followers will continue their stir against the musical programme. I have not heard from the police yet. Let me see how Colors reacts to my protest. I will then decide my next action."
Targe said his party's purpose is to "oppose the unchecked influx of illegal Bangladesh migrants into Mumbai. He ridiculed the "Hindutva parties" for keeping mum on the TV music show. "The manner in which the MNS did a somersault on the show will fuel doubts in the minds of patriotic citizens. Would it be wrong if people say that there was some kind of setting between the MNS and Colors channel?"