On a day when the Congress-led Opposition staged a walkout from the Maharashtra Assembly in protest against the attack on a church in Navi Mumbai during the weekend, the BJP-led saffron alliance Government said that it suspected a “political hand” in the incident. After the Opposition members trooped out of the Assembly briefly in protest against the attack on St George’s Catholic Church at New Panvel in Navi Mumbai, Minority Affairs Minister Eknath Khadse said in the House on Monday that the State Government was conducting an enquiry into the incident. We will soon book the vandals behind the incident and deal with them sternly,” he said,
Alluding to the incident in which three unidentified men hurled stones at a statue placed outside the St George Church at New Panvel in the early hours of Saturday, Khadse said, “We have a reason to believe that a foreign hand, anti—social elements or a political person may be involved in the incident. I do not rule out a political hand in the incident. I will come out with detailed facts on the incident before the end of the ongoing budget session of the Maharashtra legislature”.
Reiterating his Government’s commitment to protect the lives and properties of citizens, Khadse said, “We will take care to ensure that such inappropriate incidents do not recur in future”. The Minister’s statement that he suspected a “political hand” behind the attack on the New Panvel church put the Opposition on the defensive. No wonder that senior NCP legislator and former Minister Chhagan Bhujbal took serious exception to Khadse’s reply. “This Government is insensitive to the issue. That’s why it is deliberately trying to politicise the issue,” he said.
Earlier, leader of the Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil of the Congress and NCP legislator Jitendra Awhad sought to raise the issue through an adjournment notice Awhad charged that owing to the incidents of the kind witness at New Panvel, there was already sense of fear among the minorities and demanded a discussion on the issue.
Rejecting the Opposition’s demand for a discussion on the incident, Speaker Haribhau Bagde asked the State Government to make a detailed statement on the in the incident. Not satisfied with the chair’s ruling, the Opposition members staged a walkout from the House briefly. They, however, returned to the House, when Khadse began to make a statement on the issue.