The car which was carrying journalist Nikhil Wagle and others after the attack in Pune. (Express Photo by Pavan Khengre)
While senior journalist Nikhil Wagle escaped an attack on his car by BJP workers as he headed to the ‘Nirbhay Bano’ meet at Nilu Phule auditorium in the city on Friday evening, several women karyakartas, especially from MVA, also suffered injuries in a similar attack on them. The angry karyakartas condemned the Shinde-Fadnavis government and demanded the resignation of Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis.
Wagle’s car was attacked at least at four locations as headed to the event from advocate and activist Asim Sarode’s residence. The attacks took place prominently at Khandojibaba chowk and Alka chowk. The attackers, who came on two-wheelers and rained stones and poured ink on Nikhil Wagle’s car, were allegedly BJP supporters as the party had announced it would disrupt the event. The attackers competely smashed the front and rear side windshield of the car. Wagle however remained unharmed and was escorted to the event by MVA workers and activists.
You have exhausted your monthly limit of free stories.
Read more stories for free with an Express account.
”This doesn’t deter me. I have been attacked at least seven times in the past. But they could not stop me from freely articulating my views. I will continue to raise my voice against those trying to murder democracy and are sitting in Mumbai and Delhi,” Wagle asserted as the crowd cheered every word that he spoke.
Women karyakartas of MVA who tried to escort Wagle to the event were attacked in full view of hundreds of police personnel who were deployed inside and outside the venue.
Pune Congress leader Sangita Tiwari alleged that BJP workers mercilessly attacked the unarmed women karyakartas. ”They threw stones and bricks, and even poured ink on the karyakartas. At least seven-eight karyakartas were injured while two suffered head injuries,” she said.
The women karyakartas staged a noisy protest and demanded the dismissal of the Shinde-Fadnavis government. The protestors especially demanded that Fadnavis should resign as he had lost moral right to continue as State Home Minister.
”What was most shocking was that police remained mute spectators as young girls and women were being attacked with stones.They did nothing to protect the womenfolk who were only trying to protect Wagle’s car. It is clear this was done at the behest of the state government. They want to crush the voice of democracy,” said Tiwari.
Story continues below this ad
Pune Congress spokesperson Ramesh Iyer said, ”The way karyakartas were attacked shows the state government has no respect for democracy. They don’t want to hear democratic voices. They want slaves whom they are recruiting in their ranks. The BJP today stopped very low in attacking hapless women karyakartas and a a journalist who is raising his voice against the attempts being made to murder democracy in broad-daylight.”
Reacting to the attack on Wagle and women karyakartas, Supriya Sule, Baramati MP, said, ”I strongly condemn the attack on Wagle, a voice of truth and a beacon of journalism. This is not just an assault on an individual but an attack on freedom of speech itself. The deteriorating law and order situation in Maharashtra under BJP regime that is tacitly enabling such acts is alarming, and warrants strictest accountability.”
Sanjay Raut, MP, Shiv Sena (UBT) said,”I have been saying that Maharashtra has been reduced to a goonda raj state. The Shinde-Fadnavis government is a government of goons resorting to killings in broad-light. Those sitting in Mumbai are letting loose their goons on hapless people of Maharashtra and are getting pat from their masters sitting in Delhi.”
Raut said,”In the land of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, women and young girls are attacked brazenly by goons and the Pune police remains the state government. The police must be clearly under the directives of the state government to let goons cut loose. It is a shame for Maharashtra. We have been demanding that Fadnavis has no right to remain Home Minister. But he shamelessly continues to cling on to his chair and allowing goons to call the shots. We strongly condemn the attack on senior journalist and the women workers.”
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
