Bandh affects life in Pune

Tensions mounted after clashes over removal of a statue here as the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party-sponsored bandh crippled Pune for second day on Tuesday.

The dawn to dusk shut, called to protest removal of statue of Dadoji Kondadev, considered the mentor of Maratha patriot Chhatrapati Shivaji, was marked with violence. The pro-bandh activists, to enforce shut, hurled stones on speeding vehicles damaging a dozen. Police also detained many for stoning on the public places.

Life in Pune continued to be disrupted for second day after the life-sized statue was defaced and shifted from Lal Mahal area on Monday morning and placed in a municipal garden by the Pune Municipal Corporation.

The Maratha community believes that a section of historians have misrepresented Dadoji Kondadev as Shivaji’s teacher.

The Opposition, the Shiv Sena especially, protesting the move of PMC, called shut of the busy city on Tuesday. The protesters also raided the Mayor’s office and ransacked it.

The Sinhgad Express, which runs from Pune to Mumbai, was delayed after it was stopped at Lonavala.

Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray said the incident (removal of statue) was “unfortunate.”

Uddhav’s estranged cousin, Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), also protested the act.

Lal Mahal, in the heart of Pune, was the childhood home of Chhatrapati Shivaji and currently has statues of a young Shivaji and his mother, Jijabai. The municipal corporation plans to add a statue of Shivaji’s father, Shahaji Maharaj, to replace the one that was removed on Monday.

The removal of the statue was done following a Nationalistic Congress Party-Congress ruled PMC’s resolution adopted recently.