Saamana cartoon on protest puts Sena in fix

MUMBAI: After choosing to largely remain silent on the ongoing Maratha protests, the Shiv Sena was pushed to a wall over the same issue with leaders from all parties, including ally BJP and Maratha protesters, criticising a cartoon published in its mouthpiece Saamana lampooning the ongoing Maratha protests.

The party also felt tremors from within as a handful of its senior leaders from the Buldhana district in Marathwada threatened to tender their resignations, upset with the disrespect meted out to the Marathas through the cartoon.

Party sources said MP Prataprao Jadhav and MLAs Sanjay Raimulkar and Shashikant Khedekar, all from the Buldhana district where the Maratha community is in strong numbers, met Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde to express their discontent. Shiv Sena minister of state Arjun Khotkar from Jalna and MLA Hemant Patil from Nanded were also present.

“The three leaders are ready to offer their resignations, while two other legislators are also considering following suit. However, Shiv Sena has certain traditions and they don’t want to take a step without first discussing it with party president Uddhav Thackeray,” he added.

Besides MPs and MLAs, Shiv Sena’s foot soldiers, its officebearers at the grassroots, were also disgruntled with the cartoon.

The cartoon that riled the community was a three-paneled caricature published on Sunday, showing various types of protestors, including a male protestor kissing a woman, playing on the words ‘muk morcha’ (silent protest) as ‘muka morcha’ (kissing protest).

The party also got a taste of its own medicine with stones being pelted at a Saamana printing press in Sanpada, Navi Mumbai, on Tuesday, while a few protesters threw ink on the publication’s Thane office. On Monday too, copies of the publication were burnt across the state and a section of Marathas also protested outside the cartoonist’s home in Vile Parle.

Leaders from across political parties censured the Shiv Sena for hurting the sentiments of the Maratha community, with some even going as far as to call it an anti-Maratha party.