Cartoonist apologises to Marathas

FACED WITH backlash from the Marathas for a cartoon that appeared in the party’s mouthpiece Saamana, the Shiv Sena responded Wednesday with an apology from the cartoonist, Shrinivas Prabhudesai.

“I would humbly like to say that I never wanted to hurt the feelings of any section of society. I am coming out with this clarification as this issue has been politicised and the Shiv Sena and Saamana have been dragged into it,” Prabhudesai said Wednesday.

On Sunday, a cartoon had appeared in the Sena mouthpiece making fun of the silent marches being taken out by the Marathas. One showed a male protester kissing a female.

While Saamana’s Sanpada office was attacked, there were reports of some Sena MLAS offering toquit.theapologyseemstohave assuaged their feelings. Three of them — Buldhana MP Prataprao Jadhav, MLAS Shashikant Khedekar and Sanjay Raymulkar — met party chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday.

“Sena stands firmly behind the Maratha agitation. This is a conspiracy of those who never did anything for the Marathas,” Sena leader Subhash Desai said.