In a country where millions of poor people crave two square meals a day, and millions of children get no milk, the Shiv Sena has launched an agitation, ugly as it may seem, by spilling lakhs of litres of milk on the streets.

The satara unit of Shiv Sena on Wednesday stopped a milk tanker on the Satara-Pune road and drained lakhs of litres of milk on the streets. Two days ago, the Sena had stopped five more tankers in Satara and had done the same - spilling over 50,000 litres of milk.

Viraj Kharade, Shiv Sena up-pramukh, Satara said, "We will spill more milk, we will stone milk tankers and further intensify our agitation as we want the government to focus their attention on this issue." The Sena is protesting the government's decision to import processed milk powder, which it says will adversely affect the local dairy businesses.