ON September 2, 2014, on the eve of the completion of 100 days of the Narendra Modi government, a gang of around 15-20 hoodlums of the Sangh Parivar attacked the CPI(M) and CITU office at Narayan Peth in Pune city at around 2.30 pm in the afternoon. They broke the glasses of the office, damaged the furniture, tore up papers related to the ongoing struggle of unorganised workers, poured burnt oil and some kind of chemical all over the place and threatened the handful of Party activists who were in the office at the time. They said that this attack was in retaliation to the murder of an RSS activist in Kannur in Kerala the previous day. When our Party activists raised a hue and cry, the hoodlums fled. As soon as the news of the attack spread, Party members, leaders of other democratic parties and organisations, and journalists from both the print and electronic media gathered at the Pune Party office and saw for themselves the damage that had been done by the goons. CPI(M) state secretary Dr Ashok Dhawale (who was then in Talasari in the new Palghar district for assembly election work) and state secretariat member Ajit Abhyankar (who was in Pune) immediately issued media statements denouncing the cowardly attack by RSS goons, demanding their immediate arrest and calling for statewide joint protest demonstrations by Left, democratic and secular forces to condemn this attack. Accordingly, strong protest actions took place on September 3 in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Solapur, Thane-Palghar, Beed, Kolhapur, Sangli, Latur, Yavatmal, Buldana, Amravati, Nanded and other districts in the state. Leaders of the CPI, PWP, JD(S), RPI and other democratic and secular organisations condemned the attack and participated in the protests. The issue received prominent statewide coverage in both the print and electronic media. In Pune, a joint protest procession began from the CPI(M) office and culminated at the place where Dr Narendra Dabholkar was assassinated a little over a year ago. The public meeting there was addressed by veteran socialist leader Dr Baba Adhav, another socialist leader Dr Kumar Saptarshi, Fattesingh Pawar (CPI), Vithal Satav (JD-S), Subhash Ware (AAP), Bhalchandra Kerkar and Medha Thatte (Lal Nishan Party-Leninist), Kishor Dhamale (Satyashodhak Communist Party), Abhay Chhajed (Congress), stage artiste Sushama Deshpand, social activist Razia Patel, M N Kamble (BRP), Varsha Gupte (Samajwadi Mahila Sabha), Lata Bhise (Dalit Mahila Aghadi), Alaka Joshi (Lokayat Sanstha), Gorakh Mengde (Hamal Panchayat), Nitin Pawar (Rickshaw Panchayat), Ajit Abhyankar (CPI-M), Satish Chavan, Vasant Pawar and Shubha Shamim (CITU), Kiran Moghe (AIDWA), Chandrakant Tiwari (AIIEA), Prof Nitesh Navsagare (Dalit Adivasi Adhikar Manch) and others. In Mumbai, the demonstration was held outside Dadar Railway station and it was led by Mahendra Singh, Dr Kishore Theckedath, Dr S K Rege, Shailendra Kamble, Sonya Gill, Hemkant Samant and Adv Armaity Irani of the CPI(M) and Prakash Reddy of the CPI. In Talasari, the protest action was led by Dr Ashok Dhawale, Rajaram Ozare MLA, Lahanu Kom ex-MP, Mariam Dhawale, Barkya Mangat, Hemlata Kom and Sangeeta Ozare. In Solapur, the action was led by Narsayya Adam, M H Shaikh, Sidhappa Kalshetty, Naseema Shaikh, Nalini Kalburgi, Venkatesh Kongari and Yusuf Shaikh Major of the CPI(M) , R G Mhetras of the CPI, and Chennappa Savalgi and Prakash Gentyal of the JD(S). In Nashik, the demonstration was led by Dr D L Karad, Kisan Gujar, Sitaram Thombre and Shridhar Deshpande of the CPI(M) , Raju Desale of the CPI, Keru Patil and Manish Baste of the PWP, Shashi Unawane of the RPI and Mahendra Dhatrange of the Anees. In all the speeches in the above protest demonstrations, leaders stressed the fact that this attack on the CPI(M) Pune office was an attack on democracy and secularism and it must be combated as such. It was an integral part of the terror tactics of suppression of dissent that have been displayed by all semi-fascist organisations in history. All the speakers everywhere called for building the unity of all anti-communal and anti-fascist forces. It may be recalled that the renowned rationalist and socialist Dr Narendra Dabholkar was assassinated in Pune a year ago on August 20 and his assassins are still at large. On August 20 this year, large protest actions were held by all Left, democratic and secular forces throughout Maharashtra to condemn the inaction of the central and state government. Although the case has been handed over to the CBI, there is no progress worth the name. The young Muslim techie Mohsin Shaikh was also killed in Pune by goons of the Hindu Rashtra Sena three months ago on June 2, a week after the ascension to power of the BJP-led Narendra Modi government at the centre. His only crime was that he was a Muslim. The spate of communal riots engineered by the RSS-VHP-BJP over the last one year in Uttar Pradesh – from Muzaffarnagar to Saharanpur to Moradabad – and the 600-odd communal incidents in that state in the 100 days after the Narendra Modi regime came to power are another dangerous pointer of the shape of things to come. On top of that is the shameless recent statement of BJP president Amit Shah that if such communal incidents continue, the BJP will sweep Uttar Pradesh in the next state assembly elections! By the time this issue reaches our readers, the schedule of the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha polls will have been announced by the Election Commission. All Left, democratic and secular political parties are making every effort to come together to unitedly combat, first and foremost, the BJP-Shiv Sena communal combine, and also the Congress-NCP alliance. RSS goons had also gathered at CPI(M) headquarters in New Delhi with an intension to attack but the attack was averted by the alert comrades in the office.