Against the backdrop of the ink attack on Sudheendra Kulkarni and the cancellation of Ghulam Ali’s concert because of the Shiv Sena opposition, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said security will be provided to all dignitaries visiting the state.
“It’s our government’s responsibility to provide security to all foreigners, diplomats or dignitaries who are allowed on proper visa,” he said, after Kulkarni was smeared with ink for going ahead with former Pakistan foreign minister’s book launch in Mumbai.
However, the chief minister warned that the organisers would be held responsible if there was any element of “anti-India propaganda” during the event. “This doesn't mean that we endorse all views expressed in the programme. No anti-India propaganda will be tolerated.”
The attack on Kulkarni drew sharp condemnation from parties, with the Congress saying, “The idea of India as the most liberal democratic country, despite all our neighbours having gone the other way, is being destroyed in the root.”
Defending the action of party activists, senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that smearing ink was a very mild form of democratic protest. “They are so upset about ink. Imagine when our soldiers are killed and their blood is spilled. It is not ink; it is the blood of our soldiers,” he added.
Kasuri’s book Neither a Hawk nor a Dove: An Insider’s Account of Pakistan’s Foreign Policy, which was recently unveiled in Delhi, is set to be launched in Mumbai on Monday.
Sena had demanded that the event be scrapped and had threatened to disrupt it.
Kulkarni, who has served as a speech writer for Bharatiya Janata Party veterans Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani, had met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at the latter’s residence ‘Matoshree’ on Sunday night, but left without getting any assurance from him.
Image: Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis. Photograph: PTI
