Palghar lynching sparks war of words between Sena and BJP

The Palghar lynching incident has sparked a political war between former allies turned foes Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ruling Shiv Sena.

The Palghar lynching incident has sparked a political war between former allies turned foes Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ruling Shiv Sena.

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The mob lynching of three people including two sadhus in Gadhchinchale village, a remote tribal village in Palghar district on Thursday night, went viral after a video clip of the incident came to light. The clip, which has not been independently verified by HT, reportedly of the incident, showed unarmed policemen present, but failing to curb the violence.

On Sunday, the lynching incident was trending on social media, with several Twitter handles squarely targeting chief minister Uddhav Thackeray for lawlessness and even alleging a cover-up and a conspiracy in the murder of two seers. This is the second time in less than a week that Thackeray finds himself under a straight attack from the BJP. Last week, the chaos at Bandra, where hundreds of migrant workers had gathered, led to a similar social media war with #Uddhavresign trending.

The Shiv Sena and its allies in Maharashtra have termed it a desperate ploy to politicise the issue during a humanitarian crisis, even as the BJP has tried hard to showcase that the Thackeray government is failing. Both Union home minister Amit Shah and UP CM Yogi Adityanath called Thackeray over the incident; Shah had called him last week after the incident at Bandra station too.

“Our CM has made it clear that politics can wait and that we need every deck on hand while tackling a challenge of this proportion. But there has been a desperate pattern by the BJP to show that the state government is not doing enough. We have been very sincere in our efforts to address the challenge and people can see that,” said Priyanka Chaturvedi, Sena spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member.

She questioned how Shah called Maharashtra CM over the Palghar and Bandra incidents, but not Gujarat CM over the Surat incident (where migrant workers had gathered in hundreds) or the Madhya Pradesh CM over several attacks and failure to curb the outbreak.

State BJP leaders termed the Palghar incident a complete failure of law and order in Maharashtra. “The most shameful aspect in this horrific incident is that police were mute spectators and allowed the lynching. The entire law and order machinery seems to have collapsed in Maharashtra. There should be a high level inquiry in the entire incident, including a probe over whether the police are under pressure to allow locals to have their way,” said former chief minister and leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis.

Sunil Deodhar, national secretary of BJP, incharge of Tripura and Andhra Pradesh, tweeted: “No adivasi in India can attack a saffron clad person unless brainwashed over years. The area where Palghar lynching happened is a communist bastion, even the local (Dahanu) MLA belongs to the CPI.”

Congress general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant however pointed out that the village where the incident occurred was controlled by the BJP. The village head or sarpanch, Chitra Chaudhary, is from the BJP, he said. “It is a mockery that UP, the capital of mob lynching, and its CM call Thackeray to demand a probe into this incident. The village where this incident occurred is under the BJP’s control; for the past 10 years, the sarpanch is from the BJP,” said Sawant.

Thackeray also mentioned the social media war through his direct address to people both in Marathi as well as Hindi. “I don’t want to bring politics in this. We all know where all and for what reasons mob lynchings have happened in the country. Even in our state there have been instances of mob lynchings… This incident is unfortunate and very tragic,’’ said Thackeray. He also called for arrest and action against those who were spreading lies and hate on social media and said there was no communal angle to this attack.