Black ink thrown on Chandrakant Patil

A day after veteran BJP leader and Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil’s comments on Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil sparked off a controversy, black ink was thrown on his face in Pimpri-Chinchwad in Pune on Saturday.

"Karmveer Bhaurao Patil, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and Mahatma Jyotiba Phule started schools. The government did not give a subsidy when they started the schools. Instead, they started schools and ran them by begging. People gave them money. In those days some people gave Rs 10. Now there are people giving Rs 10 crore,” Patil had said on Friday at a function in Aurangabad.

However, later he clarified saying - "What I meant was begging for funds is akin to present-day concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) donations or crowd-funding. The statement was twisted out of context.”

The Pune police have detained the person responsible for throwing the ink.

“I have issued a clarification and have apologised. But what is this? You must protest in ‘lokshahi’ and not ‘jhundshahi’. You must react to words through words. What is this? If you have guts, come and face me,” Patil said.

However, he said that police need not be blamed.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis spoke to him following the incident. Several politicians also condemned the incident.