Date:15/01/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/01/15/stories/2004011504711400.htm

National

Sambhaji Brigade felicitates activists

PUNE, JAN. 14. The 72 activists of the Sambhaji Brigade, who are in police custody for vandalising the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) on January 5, were felicitated in absentia as the organisation celebrated the 406th birth anniversary of Jijamata, mother of the Maratha emperor Shivaji, amid tight security here.

The activists had vandalised the Institute taking exception to certain sections of a book on Shivaji written by American author, James Laine in which he had acknowledged the assistance of the institute in researching source material.

Addressing a gathering at the Shivaji Vyayam Mandal grounds here today, the Brigade spokesman, Gangadhar Banbare, called for the immediate release of all the 72 activists and reiterated his call for the arrest of all the researchers and historians at the Institute who had helped Mr. Laine write the book on Shivaji. He trained his guns on the media for creating what he called ``a wrong image of the Sambhaji Brigade activists by calling them vandals''. He asserted that the activists were ``cultured, educated youth.''

He alleged that a wrong estimate of the damage had been given by the institute and added that none of the ``brave soldiers of the brigade'' had torn any book as claimed. This was ``cultural terrorism'' being unleashed on the Bahujan Samaj, he said. The Additional Sessions Judge, P. K. Kulkarni, today remanded the 72 youths to magisterial custody till January 23. They were earlier remanded to police custody and have been charged under various sections including "dacoity".

— UNI