JOIN USTears, anger mark Pansare adieu
Maharashtra on Sunday bade a tearful adieu to Govind Pansare, a veteran Communist leader, activist and rationalist who was one of the faces of the anti-toll movement.
Lakhs of people walked with Pansare’s mortal remains from Dasara Chowk to Panchganga Ghats, where the cremation took place.
Pansare, 82, and his wife Uma, 67, were coming back from a morning walk in the Shivaji University campus at Kolhapur, when they were shot by two unidentified assailants near their residence at Ideal Housing Society.
In the wake of the assassination, all Communist parties and Republican factions called for a day-long bandh on Sunday. The bandh would be backed by the Congress and NCP.
While Uma is out of danger, Pansare Kaka, or Anna as he was fondly known, did not survive. He was airlifted to Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital, where he passed away late on Friday night.
The postmortem was conducted at the government-run Sir JJ Hospital in Mumbai, from where the body was taken to Kolhapur.
Incidentally, on Saturday and Sunday, the state convention of the Community Party of India (CPI) was convened in Kolhapur, which was to be presided over by Pansare.
“He had given the slogan – ‘bhaago nahi, badlo’ (don’t run, change) for the convention,” senior CPI leader Bhalchandra Kango said.
“Today, he is no more but his struggle must continue,” he said, adding that the youth of today would have to carry his legacy.
Pansare’s was murdered one-and-a-half years after rationalist and anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar was killed. Dabholkar was also shot when he was on his morning walk.