Shiv Sainiks attack TV channel offices in Mumbai, Pune; 4 staffers injured

Mumbai, Nov 20 : Shiv Sena activists Friday vandalised the offices of the IBN-Lokmat television channel in north-east Mumbai and in Pune and assaulted journalists, to protest the alleged misquoting of party chief Bal Thackeray's remarks on cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. The attack has drawn condemnation from all quarters.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan assured strong action against attackers.

Armed with sticks and bats, a mob of 25 attacked the IBN-Lokmat office in Vikhroli here, damaging the furniture and fittings, glass partitions, OB vans and electronic equipment.

According to a channel staffer, the Sena activists barged into the channel office around 4 p.m., shouting slogans in favour of the Shiv Sena and Bal Thackeray.

Besides editor Nikhil Wagle, who was slapped, pushed around and had a chair flung at him, three other staffers sustained injuries in the Shiv Sena activists' attack.

A shaken Wagle said that some of the activists launched a brutal attack on the journalists and other staffers in the office, they caused extensive damage to the office, furniture and fittings there.

"The attack was preplanned, they had come armed with sticks and iron rods for creating the mayhem in our offices. They hurled a chair at me," Wagle told media persons.

The Shiv Sena owned up responsibility for the attack later Friday evening, while the vandalism drew condemnation from other political parties.

"The government shall not go soft on the Shiv Sena and the media should boycott the Shiv Sena," a grim Ashok Chavan told media persons Friday evening. The city police nabbed seven and Pune police arrested eight Shiv Sainiks for the attacks.

Home Minister R.R. Patil also condemned the attacks and assured newsmen that stern action would be taken against those involved.

Shiv Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut accused the channel of misquoting Thackeray's observations on cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar in a signed article in the Sena mouthpiece "Saamana" last week.

"This is not an attack on the entire media. The (IBN-Lokmat) channel has been constantly misreporting about Bal Thackeray and targeting the Shiv Sena. We shall not tolerate any criticism of our party chief," Raut, a Sena Rajya Sabha MP, said.

"They also manhandled a few staffers, including women, and editor Nikhil Wagle and others," said Vijay Darda, chairman of the Lokmat group of newspapers that part-owns the channel.

Terming it as "an attack on the freedom of speech and media", Darda said he did not expect this from Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray.

"I have always considered him as a refined, cultured and family person and what has happened has pained us," Darda told IANS.

He said the channel had been running several reports on the debacle of the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance in last month's elections to the Mahastrata state assembly.

"They have vented their frustration at the defeat on the journalists and the TV channel, which is highly condemnable," said Darda, a Congress member in the Rajya Sabha.

Darda, whose younger brother Rajendra is a Congress cabinet minister in Maharasthra, said it is "disturbing that the Sainiks have become so bold as to launch attacks on the media without any fear".

South Mumbai Lok Sabha member Milind Deora, condemning the attacks, said the police must probe the top Sena leaders who had planned or instigated the attacks on the media house in Mumbai and Pune.

D.K. Raikar, group editor of Lokmat Group of Newspapers, said the immediate provocation behind the attacks was not clear.

He said that some of the activists who went on rampage were nabbed by some of the channel staffers and handed over to the police.

"They have broken the furniture and fittings, broken glass panels and partitions, several television sets, computers, communication lines, OB vans, uprooted carpets, etc.," Raikar told IANS after surveying the damages wreaked by the Sena men Friday evening.

A similar attack was carried out simultaneously at the Pune office of the channel, and there too staffers were attacked. The Pune police have arrested at least eight people in this connection.

CNN-IBN chief Rajdeep Sardesai termed the attacks as "a shame" and condemned the Sena for the attaks.

In Lucknow, the Samajwadi Party also condemned the attack, terming the attackers as anti-social elements.

"Be it the Shiv Sena or the Maharashtra Navnirmaan Sena (MNS), all are anti-social elements. They are spreading a feeling of regional difference amongst the states of the country. We appeal to the Election Commission to cancel the registration of such parties which do not follow the Indian constitution," Rajendra Chaudhary, spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, told IANS.

--IANS