Slug: Protest against Kasuri's visit
Headline: Angry Shiv Sainiks bathe Kulkarni in black paint
Strap: ORF chief was on way to launch ex-Pak minister's book
PTI
Mumbai/Delhi
Taking forward its campaign against Pakistani personalities, Shiv Sena activists on Monday blackened the face of ORF chief Sudheendra Kulkarni over his refusal to cancel the book launch function of former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, drawing strong condemnation from political parties.
Shiv Sainiks intercepted the car of Kulkarni, chairman of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), a foreign policy think tank, just outside his Matunga home and painted his face black.
A defiant Kulkarni, however, said he will not be “cowed down” by such actions and go ahead with the evening launch of Kasuri's book 'Neither a Hawk nor a Dove: An Insider's Account of Pakistan's Foreign Policy'.
“When I got out of my home this morning, a group of Shiv Sainiks stopped my car. When I came out, they smeared me with black paint. They abused me,” Kulkarni alleged. "We won't be cowed down by such events and the book launch will happen as planned,” he said and soon after was present at a media interaction along with Kasuri while still drenched in paint.
Kasuri denounced the attack on Kulkarni for not bowing down to the Sena's fiat and said, "I recognise people's right to protest, but what has happened with Sudheendra Kulkarni is not protest.” “Nations are made with a positive mindset, we need a positive mindset,” he said addressing a joint press conference with Kulkarni. Shiv Sena, however, defended the action with party MP Sanjay Raut terming it as a “very mild form” of protest.
“Smearing ink is a very mild form of democratic protest.
We don't know if ink or tar was smeared. Nobody can foretell how public anger will explode.
“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,” Raut said.
Kulkarni had met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at the latter's residence 'Matoshree' in Mumbai late last night, but failed to get any assurance from him about peaceful conduct of the book launch function.
A similar threat by Shiv Sena had recently forced the organisers of concerts of Pakistani Ghazal singer Ghulam Ali to cancel his shows planned in Mumbai and Pune.
BLACK DAY
Kulkarni was attacked by Shiv Sena activists right outside his Matunga residence
He said that he will not be cowed down after the attack
The ORF chief goes on to inaugurate former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri's book
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said the attack was a very mild form protest
