MSRTC employees throw stones, chappals at Pawar’s residence; state orders probe

Tension prevailed outside Silver Oak, the Malabar Hill residence of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, on Friday when hundreds of employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) gathered and raised slogans against him, claiming that he did nothing to fulfil their demands

Tension prevailed outside Silver Oak, the Malabar Hill residence of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, on Friday when hundreds of employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) gathered and raised slogans against him, claiming that he did nothing to fulfil their demands. They even threw stones, shoes, and chappals at the house before police personnel intervened.

Supriya Sule tries to pacify the agitating MSRTC employees outside Sharad Pawar’s residence on Friday. Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo

The state government ordered a probe into the incident.

The agitators accused the state government of being unsympathetic to them even after around 120 employees died by suicide. Workers of MSRTC have been on a strike since November 2021 demanding that they be treated on par with state government employees and that the cash-strapped transport corporation be merged with the government.

Though Pawar was not at home at the time of incident, his wife Pratibha and granddaughter Revati were inside. When his daughter and Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule tried to enter the premises, she was surrounded by the protesting employees and the police had to escort her in. Later, she came out to have a dialogue with them but in vain.

The Gamdevi police arrested 104 protesters, including lawyer Gunratna Sadavarte who is representing the striking MSRTC employees in the Bombay high court. There are also 23 women among those who were arrested. A case was registered against 132 people under sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 333 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 448 (punishment for house-trespass), 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), and several sections of rioting of the Indian Penal Code and the Maharashtra police Act.

Home minister Dilip Walse Patil said he had asked Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pande and joint police commissioner (law and order) Vishwas Nangare Patil to investigate the matter. “We are also checking if there was failure of intelligence and if any corrective measures are required to be taken.”

Pawar said he was behind the MSRTC workers but not behind the ‘wrong’ leadership of workers. “There is nothing surprising because if the leader is not good, then the cadre cannot be controlled and we could see this in today’s incident.”

He further blamed the leadership of workers saying that they were misguided and a situation was created where the workers lost their five-month income because of the strike.

“We have differences in politics for which we hold agitations, but Maharashtra does not have a culture of taking extreme steps… For the last many days, attempts have been on to instigate the employees, which is not a decent thing,” the NCP chief added.

Later in the day, the home minister and environment and tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray, along with other ministers visited Pawar’s residence.

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray condemned the incident.

“Maharashtra has never seen such an incident where the residence of a leader and his family is attacked. I have asked the home minister to take stern action against those who are responsible and those who instigated the mob to resort to violence,” he said in a statement.

Thackeray said the government had taken measures in response to the demands of MSRTC employees and pointed out that even the high court had asked the employees to resume work.

The incident occurred a day after the Bombay high court asked the striking workers of the transport corporation to resume duty by April 22.

Following the order, state transport minister Anil Parab said no action would be taken against those who would rejoin duty by this deadline.

Walse Patil blamed the opposition for instigating the MSRTC employees for the Friday protest. “There are invisible hands behind the episode of attack on the house of the NCP chief. As I have said in the past, certain political parties and leaders are behind it and using the MSRTC workers for their political intent. Action will also be taken against them.”

He also said it was surprising that even after the Bombay high court ruling, such a violent incident occurred. “We are open to dialogue with the striking MSRTC employees. If there are any issues that need to be addressed, the transport minister will look into them.”

NCP minister Jitendra Awhad said, “We will not respond to the act of violence in a similar way.”