Even as supporters of Revenue Minister Narayan Rane burnt copies of Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana in Pune and Mumbai on Thursday to protest against a morphed picture of Rane in a bridal dress, the Sena chose to lampoon Rane by repeating the picture in its Friday’s edition. On Thursday, Saamana had carried the picture on its front page with a news report of Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s Delhi visit, where he had said that Rane was like a newly wed woman who took some time to adjust in her in-laws’ house. The picture prompted Rane’s supporters in Mumbai, Pune, and some parts of Konkan to make a bonfire of Saamana copies. However, that did not deter the Sena, which repeated the same picture in its Friday edition, justifying it on grounds of freedom of expression. It even carried a sarcastic editorial on Rane. “There is nothing wrong in what we have done and we don’t understand why Rane’s supporters are burning our copies when Dashavtar (a folkdrama full of sarcasm) is popular in Rane’s home-district, Sindhudurg,” executive editor of Saamana, Sanjay Raut, said. “It is an attack on freedom of expression. Rane should be ousted from the Cabinet and prosecuted like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati did in the case of one of her ministers,” he added.
