By IndiaTomorrow.net,
Mumbai, 12 Oct 2015: Eminent author, columnist and former BJP think tank Sudheendra Kulkarni’s daughter, who was accompanied with her father when he was attacked with ink allegedly by some members of Shiv Sena here Monday morning, has strongly condemned the attack and said she was proud of her father for deciding to go ahead with book launch event even after assault.
Tapas, in a facebook post one hour ago, said she and her father Kulkarni were going to his office when “a group of 6-7 people, presumably Shiv Sainiks, pulled my father out and smeared his face with black oil paint, hurled abuses at him and shouted slogans of the Shiv Sena.”
Kulkarni’s Observer Research Foundation is organizing an event Monday evening here to launch former Pakistan minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri’s book ‘Neither a Hawk Nor a Dove: An Insider’s Account of Pakistan’s Foreign Policy’. Shiv Sena had demanded cancellation of the event, but Kulkarni didn’t budge.
“The Shiv Sena wanted the event to be cancelled because Kasuri was a ‘part of the machinery which perpetrated terror.’ Shiv Sena sent multiple threats demanding that the event be cancelled or they would boycott it Shiv Sena style. Despite attempts to reason with the party, they assaulted my father in his personal space,” wrote Tapas who graduated from Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts in May this year.
“It’s absolutely disgusting that a party would resort to violence and hateful propaganda in the name of patriotism just to stay relevant. My father has decided to go ahead with the book launch despite what happened in the morning. I couldn’t be more proud,” she said.
The attack on Kulkarni has been strongly condemned by both politicians and civil society. Kulkarni’s former boss and BJP leader LK Advani this morning also condemned the attack.
“This morning I saw on TV my long-time colleague Sudheendra Kulkarni has been attacked. I do not want to name anybody, but such incidents show a growing intolerance towards views that are different from one’s own. I strongly condemn the attack,” Advani was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh said: Such Intolerance in India can’t be tolerated. First Ghulam Ali concert and now Kasuri’s book launch. We don’t want a Desi Taliban in India.”
Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashutosh said: “AAP strongly condemns the blackening of face of Sudhindra Kulkarni. The space for open debate is shrinking. This is serious. This is fascism.”
