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Wednesday, Feb 06, 2008
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Political leaders detained in Mumbai

Special Correspondent

Barring stray incidents of violence, peace prevails; war of words, however, continues

Photo: AP

anger all around: Members of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena protest against the arrest of a leader in Mumbai on Tuesday. —

MUMBAI: Barring stray incidents of stone-pelting, Mumbai and its suburbs remained peaceful on Tuesday. The police foiled a Congress leader’s attempt to take a protest march to the residence of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, whose remarks on north Indians caused violent incidents in the city.

The war of words, however, continued. MNS municipal councillor Vasant Geete said his party would not allow trains from north India to enter Maharashtra if the leaders there did not stop making provocative statements, and Maharashtra Samajwadi Party general secretary Mushir Sayyed said his party would not tolerate attacks on north Indians and it would give a befitting reply.

The police detained a few leaders from both sides. Seventy-three members of the MNS and 19 of the SP were arrested in connection with violent incidents.

Police said the office of Bhojpuri actor Manoj Tiwari and a showroom of SP leader Abu Azmi were stoned.

The police detained Congress spokesperson Sanjay Nirupam at Shivaji Park, near Mr. Raj Thackeray’s residence. He was earlier picked up at a distance but was allowed to come to Shivaji Park in his car to “court arrest.”

He told journalists that he was staging a “peace march” and he was for amity among the various linguistic communities of the city. It was the responsibility of Mr. Raj Thackeray to restrain his party men. He denied reports that his office was attacked and claimed that he was representing the Uttar Bharatiya Parishad, a body of north Indians in the city.

After Mr. Nirupam was taken away, some of his supporters tried to move on but the police dispersed them. Some of them “courted arrest” by boarding a police van.

The police also detained MNS spokesperson Shishir Shinde and an activist Yashwant Killary. Shiv Sena MLA Bala Nandgaonkar was also taken into preventive custody.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said at a press conference that the Constitution gave all citizens right to live anywhere in the country and a stand against that was unconstitutional. “All [Indians] are ‘bhoomiputras’ [sons of soil] in India,” he said.

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