Maharashtra saw sporadic incidents of violence, road and rail blockages, torching of vehicles, rallies and shutdown of markets during a bandh called by Dalit groups on Wednesday. They are protesting over the death of a 28-year-old man, who was killed in riots between Dalit and Maratha groups that erupted at the bicentenary celebration of the Bhima Koregaon Battle near Pune on January 1.
Students, office-goers, travellers and daily wagers suffered losses as the state came to a standstill for the second day in a row; on Tuesday angry Dalit groups had taken to the roads unannounced in an agitation against the saffron groups.
At the heart of the chaos are two Right-wing leaders – Sambhaji Bhide (85) and Milind Ekbote (56). Both are accused of ranging Hindutva forces against the Dalits by desecrating the tomb of a Dalit icon, Govind Gaikwad, near Pune on December 29.
Gaikwad is believed to have performed the final rites of the slain Maratha King Sambhaji (Shivaji’s son) by defying Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s order. Gaikwad was subsequently killed by the Aurangzeb regime.
Bhide and Ekbote reportedly believe that a fake narrative about Gaikwad was spun by the British and it was in fact the Marathas who cremated Sambhaji. The two are now being accused of vandalising Gaikwad’s samadhi in Wadhu village two days before the bicentenary celebration of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon barely 3 km away.
Prakash Ambedkar and other Dalit leaders have charged the duo of “planning the conspiracy” to disfigure the samadhi and create a hostile environment in Bhima Koregaon against the Dalits, who were to assemble in large numbers two days later on new year day. Stones were pelted on the Dalits attending the gathering on January 1 by a group of people allegedly holding saffron flags.
An FIR has been filed against Bhide and Ekbote and their supporters in Pune for orchestrating the violence, following a complaint by one Anita Savle. But they have not been arrested so far.
NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik accused the BJP government in the state of shielding their own men. “The FIR has been registered only under pressure. The government is not keen to arrest them as they are their own people,” he said.
Denying that the clashes were “Dalit versus Maratha”, as was being projected by some sections, Prakash Waghmare, a writer and activist from Pune, alleged: “It is clearly Hindutva against Dalits. Bhide and Ekbote not only disfigured Gaikwad’s samadhi but have also been radicalising the Maratha youth in Pune villages for the past one year.”
Bhide, known as Bhide Guruji in political circles, appears to be a frail old man whom most people tend to ignore. But the former RSS man, who now heads the saffron group Shiv Pratishthan, is a strongman from the sugar belt of Sangli-Satara-Kolhapur of Maharashtra.
