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<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Indian politician}}<br />
[[File:Krishna Desai.jpg|thumb|Statue of Comrade Krishna Desai at Tavari Pavda Lalbaug, Mumbai, India, where he was killed]]<br />
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'''Krishna Desai''' (died 5 June 1970) was a member of the [[Communist Party of India]] (CPI).<br />
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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.<ref name="Kaur2005">{{cite book|author=Ravinder Kaur|title=Religion, violence, and political mobilisation 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–}}</ref><ref name="Hansen2005">{{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–}}</ref><br />
[[File:Funeral Procession for Krishna Desai.png|thumb|Funeral Procession for Krishna Desai. June 14, 1970]]<br />
Desai was stabbed to death on 5 June 1970. He was a sitting [[Member of the Legislative Assembly (India)|MLA]] when he was murdered.<ref name="Purandare1999">{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0">{{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}}</ref> 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."<ref name="Gupta1982">{{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]}}<br />
</ref><ref name="Hensman2010">{{cite book|author=Rohini Hensman|title=Workers, unions, and global capitalism: lessons from India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=euzs5t9AcsgC&pg=PA135|access-date=18 February 2012|date=14 November 2010|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-14800-9|pages=135–}}<br />
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In the special by-election held in October 1970, his wife Sarojini Desai was nominated by the CPI,<ref name=":0" /> but she was defeated by the Shiv Sena candidate [[Wamanrao Mahadik]] by a narrow margin of 1679 votes (of the nearly 62000 votes cast).<ref>{{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}}</ref><br />
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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".<ref name="Rediff-20040423">{{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}}</ref><br />
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==See also==<br />
* [[List of assassinated Indian politicians]]<br />
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==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Desai, Krishna}}<br />
[[Category:Communist Party of India politicians from Maharashtra]]<br />
[[Category:Assassinated Indian politicians]]<br />
[[Category:Members of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly]]<br />
[[Category:Politicians from Mumbai]]<br />
[[Category:1970 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Deaths by stabbing in India]]<br />
[[Category:Maharashtra MLAs 1967–1972]]<br />
[[Category:Year of birth missing]]<br />
[[Category:People murdered in Maharashtra]]<br />
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