The nearly six-month-long agitation of Maharashtra state transport employees took a violent turn on Friday when a group of workers charged towards the Mumbai bungalow of NCP founder-president Sharad Pawar pelting stones and hurling footwear.
Saying that there was an “invisible hand” behind the sudden protest, a rattled Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government has ordered a probe into the incident involving the Silver Oak bungalow near Breach Candy belonging to the veteran politician.
The security breach and the intelligence failure would also be probed and comes on a day when the state crime conference was being held.
A large number of employees of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) have been agitating since 27-28 October, 2021 demanding that they be treated on par with state government employees and that the corporation be merged with the government.
Over the last five to six months, some of the unions have returned to work but the ST services have been largely paralysed.
“I am with the ST employees but not with false leadership,” Pawar said in his first reaction.
Thackeray also spoke to Pawar even as his son and state tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray rushed to his bungalow.
Top leaders of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress spoke to the octogenarian Pawar, who is the chief architect of the MVA dispensation.
Even as the issue is also being heard in the Bombay High Court, the issue seems to be compounding for the tri-party government.
The development comes a day after a Bombay High Court division bench headed by chief justice Dipankar Datta has also asked the employees to return to work by 22 April and told the government not to take action against the employees.
Even as the protest was underway, Pawar’s daughter and Baramati MP Supriya Sule was seen pleading with the agitating employees to maintain calm. “This is the first time I am seeing something like this happening in Maharashtra…please m one back…lets talk,” she told the agitators.
State home minister Dilip Walse-Patil said that the entire episode would be probed.
“The ST employees must respect the judicial order and act accordingly and return to work,” he said. “There seems to be an invisible hand behind the protest,” he said.
Walse-Patil also said that the aspect of intelligence failure would be probed.
Walse-Patil has already asked Mumbai Police commissioner Sanjay Pandey to look into the issue.
The ST workers, over the last few months, have been camping at the Azad Maidan in south Mumbai, however, when he came out and moved towards Pawar’s bungalow came as a bolt from the blue.
“Some 124 MSRTC employees have died by suicide during the strike,” said Gunratna Sadavarte, who is representing the ST workers in the court.
Watch latest videos by DH here: