 |
| Act of MNS activists in Mumbai |
| | Advertisement |
|
|
Mumbai: Maverick politician and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray was arrested on Tuesday for provoking hatred among communities as his supporters vented their anger by indulging in mindless violence and torching public transport to hold India's financial capital to ransom. There was no curfew but it seemed like one with transport off the roads and large parts of the city of 16 million people being shut down following Thackeray's early morning arrest in Ratnagiri, about 250 kilometer away. Office goers were told to return home and many commercial establishments, especially those run or managed by non-Maharashtrians, chose not to open at all.
The office of the state Congress spokesperson Sanjay Nirupam was also vandalised. All schools and colleges closed by 10 am and by 2 pm most Mumbai streets were deserted as scared residents hid in their houses to avoid the wrath of the MNS. As news of the arrest - two days after MNS workers on Sunday attacked non Maharashtrians appearing for the railway board examination - spread so did the mayhem.
38 public buses set on fire by mid-afternoon, at least 40 private vehicles damaged in stone throwing, 350 taxis and 60 autorickshaws damaged or burnt, nearly 90 per cent of the total 105,000 autorickshaws and 66,000 taxis off the roads. And the result, massive inconvenience to Mumbaikars caught in the crossfire as police were forced to fire teargas shells and wield the stick to control the mobs.
There was violence in other parts of Maharashtra too. In Satara town, for instance, MNS workers set fire to a bus depot, while in Nagpur several state transport buses were attacked. Describing the arrest as a cowardly act, MNS' Nagpur unit chief Hemant Gadkari said that about 100 young party workers grouped in four motorcycle squads fanned out to different parts of the city to register their protest.
The 40-year-old Thackeray - an amateur cartoonist known till less than a year ago essentially as Bal Thackeray's nephew who split from the | 
Email Story
Write to the editor
Print Story