The Palghar mob-lynching has shocked the nation. Videos that show three individuals, including a 70-year-old, being beaten to death with sticks by an angry mob have now gone viral. Recently, the Palghar Police took to Twitter to announce that 110 people have been arrested.
Now, it must be mentioned that the incident was first reported on Friday April 17. The outrage however began almost two to three days later, when the incident caught the attention of officials and politicians at the national level. This seems to have been triggered at least in part by a video of the incident that appeared on social media two days after the brutal incident.
When the news first broke on TV on the 17th, no political or social activist reacted on it. Despite its horrific nature, it was viewed as a simple, run of the mill crime story by almost everyone. It must be mentioned that Maharashtra has faced some incidents of mob-lynching or mob-beating on the suspicion that victims are thieves in the past too – which might have helped normalise this incident.
The video however appears to have been a gamechanger. Suddenly, we had visuals of a Hindu sadhu being beaten to death’ and many were quick to jump in with a newfound communal angle to the story.
Maharashtra’s main opposition party, BJP raised this issue at national and state level. BJP’s National Secretary Sunil Deodhar who belongs to Maharashtra also tweeted on this issue. Dismissing suggestions that tribals may have attacked the Sadhus, he opted to blame the CPI(M) for this incident. In case you’re wondering, 2011 census data clarifies that a majority of the households in Gadchinchale village where the incident took place belonged to the scheduled tribes.
BJP and its supporters then became vociferous in expressing their ire at the incident, seeming to turn it into a campaign against the state government. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a frontline organisation of RSS for example, raised this issue at the national level and blamed the state government.
It is not a great stretch to say that the BJP has been actively involved in turning this into a communal issue. A campaign was launched on social media, where BJP supporters were seen targeting the state government for the murder of Sadhus. The indirect accusation of course being that the Hindu sadhus had been brutally murdered by non-Hindus.
Deodhar also used this incident to settle scores against the Left ideology. He tweeted that this area was a bastion of the Left party and added that the local legislator is also from the Left. BJP leader Praveen Darekar opted to not believe the Maharashtra police and state machinery, demanding that the case should be handed over to the CBI. He also sought resignation of State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
What Deodhar tactfully forgot to mention however was the fact that the group Gram Panchayat where this incident took place has been ruled by BJP for the last 10 years. BJP’s Chitra Chaudhary is currently the Sarpanch. He also glossed over the fact that most of the people arrested for this mob-lynching were BJP workers.
In 2014, BJP’s Pascal Dhanare won the Assembly seat of Dahanu though in 2019, CPI(M)’s Vinod Nikole won. The Zila Parishad seat was won by NCP. The Lok Sabha seat which comprises this area has been won many times by the BJP and in 2019, Shiv Sena won this seat.
The RSS too is working hard to make this tribal belt their bastion. RSS’s frontal organisation Vanwasi Kalyan Ashram has their Ashram at Talasari which is part of this tribal belt. Chintaman Wanga who has represented this Lok Sabha constituency from BJP many times, was involved in RSS work in this tribal belt. When Wanga died, the condolence meeting was held at this Ashram. The then CM Devendra Fadnavis visited this Ashram to pay his tributes.
Not only Maharashtra politicians, the communal angle is being peddled by those outside the state too. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath called Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to highlight the religious angle in this incident. This was surprising as the victims were not from Uttar Pradesh but from within the state of Maharashtra. The BJP justified this call, stating that since the UP CM was also a sadhu, it made sense that he had called to discuss this issue.
Next came a phone call to Uddav Thackeray from Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
So far, BJP’s response to this tragedy was in line with their Hindutva ideology. Despite repeated reiterations from Maharashtra’s Chief Minister, Home Minister and Police clarifying that there was no communal angle to the issue, BJP leaders have tweeted otherwise.
Based on the reaction so far, it can be safe to say that the BJP has put in a lot of effort to hype up the tragedy. The hidden agenda behind this, one can speculate is to indicate that while Hindus had been safe under their government, they could not count Maha Vikas Aghadi to keep them safe in the state.
It is impossible that the BJP and its followers are still unaware of the absence of any communal angle in this incident. Why then do the rumours continue to persist?
The BJP is no stranger to the idea of pan-India Hindutva, and perhaps, the party felt the need to show its supporters that they are the only saviours that Hindus in India can hope to have. Maharashtra however might be a more personal target, considering the month-long political debacle that preceded the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. Additionally, ideologically speaking, the Shiv Sena enjoys support from many who also support the BJP. Part of the Sena’s core voter base also comes from Hindutva ideology followers. With the two no longer being allies, the BJP may very well see them as competition and as a threat. The BJP’s attack on the Uddhav Thackeray government attempted to say that the Shiv Sena is no longer a protector of Hindus and that they have compromised their ideology.
In all likelihood, this issue will be used on many future occasions by the BJP.
Sensing this Uddhav Thackeray recently addressed the state and announced the suspension of Police officers and ordered a high-level inquiry. He has also indirectly snubbed BJP and its leaders for their attempt to communalise this issue. For the next few days, it is clear that BJP and Shiv Sena will be at logger-heads over this issue.
Pramod Chunchuwar is the Political Editor of The Free Press Journal, and covers politics and government in Maharashtra. All views expressed in the article are his own.
