Krishna Desai
{{Short description|Indian politician}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2015}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Krishna Desai
| honorific-prefix = Comrade
| image = Krishna Desai.jpg
| caption = Statue of Krishna Desai at Tavari Pavda Lalbaug, Mumbai, where he was killed
| birth_place = Valsad, Gujarat
| nationality = Indian
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1970|6|5|1877|10|13}}
| death_place = Lalbaug, Mumbai
| death_cause = Assassination (stab wound)
| office = Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
| constituency = Parel
| term_start = 1967 - 1970
| term_end =
| predecessor =
| successor =
| party = Communist Party of India
| spouse =
| children =
| alma_mater =
| website =
| footnotes =
| date =
| year =
| source =
}}
Krishna Desai (13 October 1877 - 5 June 1970) was a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI).
Life
He was a Member of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra who represented the working-class Mumbai constituency of Parel, then a communist stronghold. Desai was murdered in 1970, and this was preceded by the burning of the office of the CPI-led Girni Kamgar Union. Hansen considers his murder to be the culmination of the Shiv Sena campaign against the communists. His murder was a sign of a Sena victory in its struggle for the domination of unions and politics in Mumbai's working class district.{{cite book|author=Ravinder Kaur|title=Religion, violence, and political mobilization in South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iEMwF7pAm-cC&pg=PA90|access-date=18 February 2012|date=5 November 2005|publisher=SAGE|isbn=978-0-7619-3431-8|pages=90–}}{{cite book|author=Thomas Blom Hansen|title=Violence in urban India: identity politics, 'Mumbai', and the postcolonial city|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iRAj9NnMdYgC&pg=PA63|access-date=18 February 2012|year=2005|publisher=Permanent Black|isbn=978-81-7824-120-3|pages=63–}}
Death
File:Funeral Procession for Krishna Desai.png
Desai was stabbed to death on 5 June 1970. He was a sitting MLA when he was murdered.{{cite book|author=Vaibhav Purandare|title=The Sena story|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c3WKAAAAMAAJ|access-date=18 February 2012|year=1999|publisher=Business Publications Inc|isbn=978-81-7693-015-4}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TeRWxaJLoDUC&pg=PA204|title=Mumbai Fables|last=Prakash|first=Gyan|date=2010-09-20|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1400835942|pages=204|language=en}} Seven suspects were arrested on 8 June 1970. Nineteen young persons were charged and sixteen were convicted for the murder. The accused were defended by Ram Jethmalani. Balasaheb Thackeray's complicity in the murder was never proven. Prakash writes that those convicted were members of the Shiv Sena.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TeRWxaJLoDUC&pg=PA248|title=Mumbai Fables|last=Prakash|first=Gyan|date=2010-09-20|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1400835942|pages=248|language=en}} According to Dipankar Gupta, the Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray congratulated those who killed Desai, declaring, "we must not miss a single opportunity to massacre communists wherever we find them."{{cite book |last=Gupta |first=Dipankar |title=Nativism in a Metropolis: The Shiv Sena in Bombay |url=https://archive.org/details/nativisminmetrop0000gupt |url-access=registration |publisher=Manohar |year=1982 |page=[https://archive.org/details/nativisminmetrop0000gupt/page/159 159]}}
Aftermath
In the special by-election held in October 1970, his wife Sarojini Desai was nominated by the CPI, but she was defeated by the Shiv Sena candidate Wamanrao Mahadik by a narrow margin of 1679 votes (of the nearly 62000 votes cast).{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TeRWxaJLoDUC&pg=PA249|title=Mumbai Fables|last=Prakash|first=Gyan|date=2010-09-20|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1400835942|pages=249|language=en}}
According to the communists, the then Indian National Congress government had an interest in weakening and driving out the communists, and so it "supported the incident".{{cite web|url=http://www.rediff.com/election/2004/apr/23espec3.htm|title=Know your party: Shiv Sena|last= Ashraf|first=Syed Firdaus |date=2004-04-23|work=rediff ELECTIONS|publisher=Rediff.com|access-date=17 June 2012|location=Mumbai}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
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Category:Communist Party of India politicians from Maharashtra
Category:Politicians from Mumbai
Category:Deaths by stabbing in India
Category:Maharashtra MLAs 1967–1972
Category:People murdered in Maharashtra
Category:Asian politicians assassinated in the 1970s
Category:Indian politicians assassinated in the 20th century
Category:Politicians assassinated in 1970
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