Shiv Sena to continue protest against Kasuiri's book despite Fadnavis' intervention

The Shiv Sena has denied reports of the party calling off protests against Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri's book Neither a Hawk nor a Dove.

Sena has been protesting against the book launch event being organised by Obersver Research Foundation chairman Sudheendra Kulkarni today in Worli, Mumbai. The reports of truce emerged after Shiv Sena MLA Sunil Shinde said: "Uddhav Thackeray spoke to Maharashtra CM and decided that protest against Sudheendra Kulkarni will be called off".

However, Shiv Sena spokesperson immediately held a press conference to dispel such "lies".

Message is going around that we have withdrawn our protest, this is a blatant lie. We hold our stand: Sanjay Raut pic.twitter.com/tyQMJwY2pd

— ANI (@ANI_news) October 12, 2015

Sena activists had smeared ink on Kulkarni's face after he vowed to go ahead with Kasuri's book launch despite a warning from party chief Uddhav Thackeray.

Kulkarni did not wash off the stains when he appeared at a press conference after the attack, accompanied by Kasuri. Kulkarni said: "Today morning when I left from my home, my car was stopped right outside my house by the Shiv Sena workers. They asked me to step out. The moment I stepped out, they held me and started shouting slogans against me, abused me, called me anti-national."

The entire incident brought to fore the cracks in the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance. While, Sena was protesting against the book launch, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis assured the organisers full security.

Earlier, while justifying the attack, Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, "It was a mild attack... The way these Pakistani agents are being aided by the government I'm surprised that the military has not been called yet."

This attack comes close on the heels of another anti-Pakistan incident. On Friday, Sena was able to successfully cancel Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali's concert in Mumbai. Sena's argument is that it wouldn't allow any event involving Pakistan nationals to be scheduled in India because of "Indian soldiers being killed on the border". Even then Fadnavis had earned a lot of flak for failing to reign in Sena's "hooliganism."