Mumbai's Shiv Sena goes after Bombay Stock Exchange, demands name change

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Recently the party re-launched its campaign by pointing towards establishments that still have 'Bombay' in their names. They targeted leading newspaper, the Times of India for their city supplement being called 'Bombay Times', Bombay Scottish an elite school and a textile major Bombay Dyeing's showroom.

A 'procession' led by senior Shiv Sena leaders with twenty-four workers from the party and its students wing Bhartiya Vidyarthi Sena (BVS) held a protest outside PJ Towers on Dalal Street, Tuesday, and threatened further action if their demand was not met.

The two separate batches were arrested under provisions of the Bombay Police Act for violating prohibitory orders.

"The first batch of activists came at around 12:30 hours and were picked up before they could protest. The second batch, which came at 14:30 hours, indulged in sloganeering and were immediately taken away," a senior police officer said.

Sena activists have renewed protest since Sunday after a MP and executive editor of the party paper 'Saamna', Sanjay Raut wrote an article in which he said that the usage of the word "Bombay" even after the city was renamed is an "affront to the Marathi pride."

BVS chief Abhijit Panse, who was in the second group, told the police that he had an appointment with the BSE officials and went into the multi-storeyed building situated in south Mumbai's Dalal Street. He submitted a memorandum to the chief security officer demanding a change of name for the country's premier stock exchange to "Mumbai Stock Exchange."

"He came out after the BSE officials asked him for time to examine the legal aspects and we later arrested him," said a senior police official.

The protest march at the BSE was relatively non-violent. While copies of Bombay Times were burnt in front of the newspaper's office at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and near Times of India's Kandivili offices and press, activists tampered with the signboard of Bombay Dyeing's showroom on Delisle Road.

This led to an arrest of seventeen party workers with the most recent attack's twenty four activists being taken under custody.

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