Mumbai: After holding India's financial capital to ransom for close to two hours, the city's taxi union called off its flash strike when Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil assured them of safety.
The 55,000-strong taxi union went on strike on Thursday after reports of fresh attacks on their offices by activists of Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
The state Home Secretary Chitkala Zutshi promised security for the taxi drivers.
"All miscreants will be dealt with severely. We mean to maintain law and order. There have been sporadic incidents but we are going to deal with the situation very firmly,” she said.
After days of violence and scathing attacks on the north Indians in India’s financial capital, MNS workers hit the streets yet again, targeting the already agitated taxi unions.
One of the taxi drivers who was attacked said, "Maar peet hua. Mujhe maar ke bina kasoor ke chale gaye. Mere aankh me chot lagi hai. Main iske aage aur kuch nahi bol sakta. Bina galti ke maara gaya. Main akela tha." ("They attacked me without any reason or fault of mine. I was all alone and now I have an injured eye.")
Taxi drivers, food vendors and rail passengers hailing from north India have been allegedly targeted by MNS activists since Sunday following party chief Raj Thackeray's anti-north Indian remarks.
On Wednesday, two autorickshaws parked in a residential locality were allegedly set on fire by some unidentified persons, police said.
However, the police refused to associate the incident with the recent clashes targeting north Indians in the city.
The vehicles were lit while they were parked at BMC Colony in Anand Nagar of suburban Oshiwara at around 3 am today causing minor damage to the vehicles, a senior police officer said.
Mumbai's Joint Commissioner of Police, Law & Order, KL Prasad — seeking to downplay the incident — said, "All this is a rumour. Mumbai is calm today except for one incident. We are investigating into it."
Meanwhile, an MNS spokesperson has said MNS is not responsible for the attacks and some miscreants must have done it.
"We did not attack the taxi union office. it is someone else maligning the MNS," said Shirish Parkar.Raj goes on defensive
Earlier, in an exclusive interview with CNN-IBN, MNS chief Raj Thackeray said his party workers were instigated and that they had nothing to do with actor Amitabh Bachchan.
PAGE_BREAK
He also decried demands for his arrest and pointed out Abu Azmi, the Samajwadi Party's Mumbai unit chief, was also walking free even after making offensive comments.
In an editorial published on Thursday in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna, party patriarch Bal Thackeray snubbed Raj – his nephew - describing his comments against Bachchan as foolish.
Maharashtra DGP G S Pasricha did not rule out the possibility of Raj Thackeray’s arrest. “It has to be done in proper manner in accordance with law. Joint Commissioner (Law and Order) is looking into it. If necessary he may arrest him,” he said.
Pasricha also said the man who led the attack on Mumbai taxi union office has been arrested. “There's no problem in the entire state except the incident at the office of taxi union leader. Mumbai police arrested two leaders . We are dealing with it professionally,” he said. State govt runs for cover
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is in New Delhi to meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi. He said action would be taken against Raj Thackeray, "It is our responsibility to provide security to everyone who comes to Maharashtra," Deshmukh told CNN-IBN.
Deshmukh also said he had consulted the Attorney General about the procedure for Raj’s arrest
“In the matter of Thackeray’s arrest, we have taken the opinion of the Advocate General. It should come by today evening,” he said.
Comments
0 comment