Senior CPI leader Govind Pansare, who died on Friday night after he developed medical complications in the wake of two surgeries he underwent for the bullet wounds that he had suffered after he was shot at by two unidentified assailants on February 16, was cremated on the banks of Panchaganga river at Kolhapur in western Maharashtra on Saturday evening.
Thousands had turned out for the funeral of 82-year-old Pansare, amidst waving of red flags and raising of slogans like “Amar rahe, Shahid Comrade Govind Pansare Amar Rahe,” and “lal Salaam, lal Salam” by his supporters gathered on the banks of Panchaganga river in his home town of Kolhapur.
Pansare’s grandson and daughter-in-law lit his funeral pyre, as his family members cremated him without any religious rituals. The body of Pansare, who died of a heart failure at the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai late on Friday night after he suffered excessive bleeding in his lungs, was earlier in the afternoon flown back an air ambulance from Maharashtra's capital to Kolhapur by the Maharashtra Government.
The State Government had earlier on Friday afternoon air-lifted him from his home town to Mumbai on Friday afternoon, after his condition worsened at the Aster Aadhar Hospital at Kolhapur, where he had been admitted soon after he was shot at by two unidentified assailants on Monday last.
Pansare’s body, which was kept for public darshan at Dussehra chowk at Kolhapur, was taken in a procession that made its way to Panchaganga crematorium through Bindu Chowk and Shivaji Chowk. Thousands of people who had joined the procession raised slogans both hailing him and lodging protest against the Maharashtra Government for its failure to prevent the shocking attack on Pansare.
So much so that Kolhapur observed a total bandh in protest against the killing of Pansare. There was considerable anger the people in Kolhapur over the absence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the funeral.
Pansare (82) and his wife Uma (67) had been shot by two motorcycle-borne assailants from a close range, near their residence “Ideal Housing Society” at around 8.30 am on Monday last, when the couple was returning from a morning walk from the Shivaji University campus at Kolhapur. While Pansare sustained bullet wounds on the nape of his neck and another minor injury on his hand, wife Uma sustained relatively minor bullet injury on her neck.
In twin developments triggered by the passing away of Pansare, the Congress demanded a CBI inquiry into the murderous attack on Pansare and the left parties called for a “Maharashtra bandh” on Sunday. The Opposition Congress, NCP, Raju Shetty-led Swabhimani Sehtkari Sanghatana and Republican Party of India (Athavale) have supported Sunday’s bandh.