A Pune-based Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated think tank, Vivek Vichar Manch, has filed an application, demanding Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar be summoned for a hearing with the two-member commission probing the Bhima-Koregaon violence on January 1, 2018.
Lawyer Ashish Satpute, who is representing the commission, said, “The applicants have said that as Pawar made a public statement that right-wing activists Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote created atmosphere that induced violence, it appears he [Pawar] has more information about the incident and hence they want him to appear before the commission.”
Sagar Shinde from Vivek Vichar Manch submitted the application before the commission. “The application will be placed before the chairman and members, after which they will take a decision,” said VV Palnitkar, secretary of the commission.
The Manch had released a fact-finding report on the incident, blaming Maoists and demanding an inquiry into the role of organisations, namely Kabir Kala Manch and Republican Panthers, which organised the Elgar Parishad on December 31, 2017 in Pune, which they claimed led to the violence. The organisation had earlier also demanded an inquiry into the role of activist Umar Khalid and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mewani in organising this event. The report had given clean chit to a Hindutva organisation, Shiv Pratishtan Hindustan led by Sambhaji Bhide, which was accused of instigating the riots. “The violence was orchestrated by outfits inclined to the Maoist ideology and those falsifying history to create tension in the society,” stated the report.
Pradeep Gavade, representing the Pune think tank, said, “Whatever the NCP chief has said is crucial information. It also comes in the purview of terms of reference of the commission. We have requested the commission to summon him to check if he has any evidence to corroborate what he said about Bhide and Ekbote. We can also get an opportunity to cross-examine him.”
{{/usCountry}}Pradeep Gavade, representing the Pune think tank, said, “Whatever the NCP chief has said is crucial information. It also comes in the purview of terms of reference of the commission. We have requested the commission to summon him to check if he has any evidence to corroborate what he said about Bhide and Ekbote. We can also get an opportunity to cross-examine him.”
{{/usCountry}}State NCP spokesperson and minister Nawab Malik said, “Every individual has a right to make a demand. It is up to the commission to decide.”
The NCP chief on Tuesday alleged that Bhide and Ekbote were responsible for creating an atmosphere of animosity in the area among the locals ahead of the 200th anniversary celebrations of a 1818 war at the war memorial in Pune district, which led to violence on January 1, 2018. He had said prior to this, there was no history of a rift between locals and visiting Dalits, who gathered every year at the war memorial. The Bhima-Koregaon war was won by the British Army manned by Dalit soldiers against the ruling Peshwas, Brahmin rulers. The Pune Police had then filed cases against intellectuals, linked to Leftist and Dalit movements, linking them to Elgar Parishad. Later, it was claimed that the arrested activists were involved in a conspiracy to kill the Prime Minister.