Minister given milk bath after ink attack

Maharashtra Labour Minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Hasan Mushrif found himself drenched in “royal blue ink” on Thursday, splashed upon him by a disgruntled unemployed party worker while was on a dais at a meeting at Buldana in Vidarbha.

On Friday, 24 hours later, Mushrif once again found himself in the headlines for being given a bath in “milk” to cleanse himself of the “ink stains” in his home district of Kolhapur.

Reports trickling in from the hinterlands of Buldana, over 560 km from Mumbai, said that the solemn-faced, chubby Mushrif, accompanied by Buldana district collector and Amravati divisional commissioner, was sitting on the dais pontificating over the problems faced by the local people when a party worker, Namde Dongardive, strolled right up to the stage, took out an ink bottle and splashed its contents onto the stunned Mushrif. The minister was under the impression that the young man was about to touch his feet.

An angry Dongardive later told police that other than giving out platitudes, “Mushrif has done nothing for the people and the splashing of ink was a symbolic protest of the educated masses against the indifference of political leaders.” An embarrassed Mushrif attempted to maintain calm throughout, kept the conversation going and the meeting running after his “ink attacker” was whisked away .

On Friday morning, Mushrif reached his home district Kolhapur. His enthusiastic followers asked him to sit on a chair for, what they called, a “purification and cleansing ritual.” After setting Dongardive’s effigy on fire amid much pomp and show, Mushrif found himself drenched once again - this time with milk. The followers later poured milk on Mushrif’s photograph, too, and this in front of cameras.