NEW DELHI — A veteran Communist leader and critic of right-wing groups was shot along with his wife in central India on Monday morning as they were out for a stroll, the police said.
The politician, Govind Pansare, 81, was in critical but stable condition after doctors operated to remove a bullet from his body, said Ankit Goel, a police official from Kolhapur, where Mr. Pansare lives. His wife, Uma Pansare, was less seriously wounded, Mr. Goel said.
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Kolhapur has long been known as a progressive enclave where some of the first policies to provide job quotas for lower-caste people were enacted. But Communism, once a potent political force in India, has declined substantially in influence in recent years.
