By IANS
Mumbai : Mumbai’s streets continued to be tense Tuesday with Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam being arrested when he was demonstrating outside the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) premises, in retaliation to activists from the outfit armed with stones and sticks protesting outside his office.
Hundreds of workers from Raj Thackeray’s MNS gathered outside Nirupam’s office in Andheri East around 11 a.m., shouting slogans against the Congress spokesperson and north Indians.
In turn, Nirupam and his supporters marched to the residence of Raj Thackeray, estranged nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, near Shivaji Park in south-central Mumbai.
Raj has launched a bitter tirade against north Indians, specifically targeting Amitabh Bachchan and his family, and north Indian festivals celebrated in Mumbai.
There was a wild rumour that some miscreants had targeted Nirupam’s 12-year-old daughter here Tuesday.
Scotching the rumours, Nirupam told IANS: “It is inconceivable to even think that anybody, including MNS, could stoop so low as to attack women and children. If they have the courage, they should fight with us.”
“My daughter is absolutely safe and sound, and such reports will only spark more trouble and more violence,” Nirupam, the Congress spokesperson, added.
Nirupam, who hails from Bihar and for years was with the Shiv Sena, said his demonstration was peaceful but police rounded up most of the protestors. He introduced the tradition of public celebrations of the north Indian Chhath Puja festival at Juhu Beach.
The former executive editor of the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Dopahar Ka Saamna, Nirupam was also rewarded by with a two-term party nomination to the Rajya Sabha.
He had succeeded in mobilising a majority of big and small north Indian associations under an umbrella organisation, the Uttar Bharatiya Sabha.
The Raj Thackeray-led MNS and the Samajwadi Party have been at loggerheads since Sunday when MNS mobs went on the rampage targeting north Indians, Samajwadi Party activists and north Indian businesses. Bachchan, who has been targeted by MNS, is closely associated with the Samajwadi Party.