Wary of renewed clashes, villagers blame ‘outsiders’
The winter brings bad memories for Janabai Phatangale.
It was around this time last year when she was trying to convince her son Rahul to get married. A mechanic at Sanaswadi village in Maharashtra’s Pune district, Rahul was not too averse to the idea, knowing that his mother wanted to have a family to take care of her as she grew old.
But that was not to be. On New Year’s Day, Rahul stepped out of his home in the morning to buy vegetables from the local market and was hit on the head with a large piece of rock on his way back. He was rushed to the hospital but succumbed to deep head wounds by the end of day, becoming the first casualty to riots and stone pelting that broke out in Bhima Koregaon, 15 km away.
Janabai, who is in her 60s, says her family was never interested in politics, or in the caste tensions that roiled the region last year, but cannot forget how her 28-year-old son was taken away from her. She spends most of her time indoors nowadays, praying for closure as the police are yet to file a charge sheet in the case. They have arrested four people but for months, there has been no progress and the investigation appears stalled. “I will settle for nothing less than the death penalty for those responsible for the death of my son,” she said .
Located off the Pune-Ahmednagar K VENKATESHAM, Pune police commissioner, on August 31 highway roughly 40 km from Pune, Bhima Koregaon was pushed under the national spotlight after violent clashes rocked the bicentennial celebration of a war that had been passing off peacefully for decades.
What was a mark of Dalit pride and assertion, now resembles a crime scene. Police have thrown a protective cordon around the memorial, restricted access to visitors and there is talk of tight security and heavy checks at the annual celebration this year to ward off any tension.
But locals in the village with a population of 5,000 say there was no tension in the region to begin with and that the violence was orchestrated by outsiders who came in large numbers. “For years, we have been living here peacefully. Last year, a large numbers of outsiders came and created violence for which we are now paying the price,” said an angry Ramdas Gavhane, whose son Kiran was booked for rioting.
He is a Maratha, as are most others in the village that has a small Dalit population but a chief from the scheduled caste community. As the date for this year’s celebration draws near, locals brace for a repeat of the violence and say they are wary of a backlash. “All of us here want to live in harmony,” said Sangeeta Govind Kamble, the village chief of Bhima Koregaon.
The administration is confident . “We are confident that the January 1 programme will take place without any disturbances,” said collector Naval Kishore Ram
BHIMA KOREGAON: I can say the scope of the case in which activists linked to Maoist outfit is not just limited to Elgaar Parishad. It’s much bigger. Dissent is the safety valve of democracy. If dissent is not allowed, then the pressure cooker may burst.