MINISTER GIVES CLEAN CHIT TO MEVANI
ATHAWALE SAYS MLA DID NOT INCITE PUNE VIOLENCE
MUMBAI: Dalit rights activist and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani and JNU student leader Umar Khalid were not responsible for the violence at Bhima-koregaon near Pune, said Ramdas Athawale, Union minister of state for social justice and president of Republican Party of India (A).
Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Athawale said Mevani may have made provocative statements but that was not the actual reason for the unrest. Tension started after a meeting held by the Marathas at midnight on January 31, he alleged.
Dalits heading to Bhima-koregaon to commemorate the 200th anniversary of a British-peshwa war were attacked on January 1. Dalit groups blamed Hindutva groups for the assault, while the latter alleged that provocative statements by Khalid and Mevani vitiated the harmony between the communities. Athawale also met chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday morning and demanded action against those responsible for the violence in which a 28-year-old man was killed; and an end to harassment of Dalit youth by the police.
The Pune police have booked Mevani and Khalid for allegedly making inflammatory and provocative statements at the Elgar Parishad event in Pune’s Shaniwarwada on December 31. The case was registered after a complaint by a 22-year-old student.
“He (Mevani) may have said something provocative but is not responsible for the unrest. Tension between the two communities erupted after a banner — put up by a Dalit youth explaining the history of Govind Mahar, a Dalit farmer who cremated Sambhaji Maharaj’s body against the order of a Mughal emperor— was torn down,” Athawale said.
“The tension was defused after several leaders, including me, intervened. But a meeting by the Marathas took place around midnight on January 31, and the very next day, Dalits, who had come to mark the bicentenary of the Bhima-koregaon battle, were attacked and vehicles burnt,” he added.