Hours after Shiv Sena workers attacked Sudheendra Kulkarni, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Monday that organisers of the event would be held responsible if there was any anti-India propaganda there, an NDTV report stated.

Fadnavis had earlier said the government would provide adequate security at the event. Shiv Sena workers threw ink on Kulkarni, chairman of Mumbai think-tank Observer Research Foundation, for planning an event to launch a book by former Pakistan foreign minister KM Kasuri.

The Shiv Sena defended its ink attack on Kulkarni on Monday morning, and threatened to disrupt the book launch scheduled for later in the day. A defiant Kulkarni said the event would go ahead as scheduled.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said, "This is not ink, but the blood of our martyrs on his face. He should feel ashamed for siding with Pakistan's chamchas. You cannot stop people as they have pent up hatred against Pakistan in their minds," DNA reported.

The attack drew sharp criticism across parties, with the Congress saying that "the idea of India as the most liberal democratic country, despite all our neighbours having gone the other way, is being destroyed in the root".

Senior BJP leader LK Advani told The Hindu, “I strongly condemn whosoever has done this...of late we have seen an increase in cases of intolerance, this is against democracy.”

What we know so far:

  • Party activists on Monday morning smeared black ink over the face of Kulkarni, chairman of the foundation. "We won't be cowed down by such events and the book launch will happen as planned," Kulkarni said while still drenched in paint, according to a PTI report. India Today reported that he was taken to hospital after the attack.
  • Last week, the Sena forced the cancellation of concerts by Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali in Mumbai and Pune. It also threatened Kulkarni's Observer Research Foundation that it would hold a "Sena-style protest" against the launch of Kasuri's book, Neither a Hawk nor a Dove.