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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, Aug 2: Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray targeted Union Railways Minister Ram Vilas Paswan by asking his sainiks to prevent his entry into the State.
On the face of it, the issue was the Konkan Railway. The Sena chief is angry with the Union Minister for his refusal to start trains on the Konkan Railway from Dadar instead of Kurla from where they have currently been scheduled to originate.
8220;Shiv Sainiks will stop Paswan from entering Maharashtra,8221; Thackeray thundered.
He said that Paswan did not concede the demands of the people even though they had resorted to agitations last month. He noted that on July 9, Sena MP Mohan Rawle had also led a rail roko in Mumbai that had brought peak suburban traffic to a halt.
However, although seemingly unrelated, Paswan8217;s ban8217; might have been provoked by the fact that he was in the forefront of the movement to seek the dismissal of the Sena-led government in the State following a police firing on Dalits last month. Paswan was among the first leaders to visit Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar where he was received warmly. Most Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party leaders including Chief Minister Manohar Joshi and Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde were driven out by stone-throwing.
The Sena meeting today dwelt at length on the problems of the Konkan region. Speaking at the meeting, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi said that the government would issue bonds to finance the irrigation project of the Konkan region. The bonds will be designed on the lines of the Rs 300-crore bonds floated for the Krishna and Tapi valley projects. Konkan is important to the Sena where it has been spreading its wings steadily for the last decade. A majority of the party8217;s MLAs outside Mumbai hail from this region.
Obviously, with the fracas over the so-called tanker theory in mind, he said tankers carrying inflammatory materials will not be allowed to park on the roadsides. The July 11 police firings following the desecration of a statue of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar had allegedly been provoked by attempts to ignite a tanker on the highway.
Joshi said that the government was committed to protecting the interest of workers on all its decisions with regard to the sale of surplus land of sick textile mills. The Chief Minister has recently been under attack over the hush-hush sale of surplus land belonging to the New Great Eastern and Modern Mills.
Even as Joshi assured his party members that his government was under no threat, the Sena chief said that this is the time to take up all the developmental projects envisaged at the beginning of Shiv Shahi and complete them at the earliest.
8220;This will bring us back to power with a thumping majority,8221; he said.The Sena chief8217;s son, Uddhav Thackeray, also addressed the meeting and appealed to all Sena ministers to strive hard to improve the image of the government.
Attack on scribes prohibited
Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray today called a truce with the press corps.
Addressing a meeting of senior Sena leaders including ministers and shakha pramukhs, he said stern action will be taken against any one who dares to attack journalists or newspaper offices.
The last week witnessed a series of attacks on the media throughout Maharashtra. Shiv Sainiks were apparently incensed by newspaper criticism of the government8217;s attitude to Dalits in the State following the police firings on July 11 that killed ten persons in Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar in Mumbai.
Thackeray said that he was aware that a section of the media was extremely critical of him and his party. 8220;We will tolerate the criticism, henceforward,8221; he magnanimously concluded.
The generosity, however, appears to have been prompted by the boomerang of the Sena-led government8217;s action on noted gangster Arun Gawli who was recently arrested for an attack by his supporters on a city journalist.
Gawli was bailed out yesterday. However, the government8217;s action in this regard has brought forth demands for action against Shiv Sainiks, including Thackeray, who have been responsible for a series of even more serious attacks on journalists. While the police arrested Gawli despite his not being named in the FIR, they have failed to arrest Anand Dighe, the feared shakha pramukh of Thane who was named by a correspondent of a local daily as the perpetrator of a recent attack on him that led to his hospitalisation.
