‘Saamna’ office attacked over offensive cartoon
A day after the controversial cartoon that alluded to the silent protests of the Maratha community was published in Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece ‘Saamna’, office of the newspaper in Navi Mumbai was allegedly stoned on Tuesday over a cartoon.
Giving details about the attack, police said three youths came in a vehicle at the 'Saamna' printing press building located at Sanpada in Navi Mumbai at around 1.45 pm. They called the guard of the press and requested him to take a letter. As the guard was approaching the vehicle, the youths got down, rushed towards the press and allegedly pelted stones damaging glasses on the outer wall of the building and fled, they said.
Police reached the spot and a complaint was lodged by the office-bearers at Sanpada police station. Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale confirmed the incident. Police said an offence has been registered against the accused and appropriate action will be taken.
The cartoon appears to have played with the words “Mook Morcha” (silent rally) and made it “Mooka Morcha (kiss rally) and the controversial cartoon showed a man kissing a woman on the cheek amidst the rally.
The pro-Maratha social organisation, Sambhaji Brigade, has taken responsibility for the attack and condemned the cartoon published in the mouthpiece.
Meanwhile, in protest against the cartoon that attempted to poke fun at the campaign for Maratha reservations, three Maratha leaders of the party have submitted their resignations to party president Uddhav Thackeray. Sena MP from Buldhana, Prataprao Jadhav and two MLAs Shashikant N. Khedekar from Sindhkhed Raja in Buldhana and Sanjay Raimulkar from Mehkar constituency in Buldhana have sent their resignations.
Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant has called Saamna's cartoon an insult to the Maratha community. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik echoed the sentiments and said, “It is an insult to the community and Shiv Sena cannot misuse the freedom that the media has to hurt the sentiments of the community. They should apologise for such an insensitive cartoon and should clearly spell out what is their view about the ongoing rallies by the community.”
A series of silent protests by the Maratha community have been going on in the state since August 9.