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6 years after Dabholkar’s murder, a look at the rationalist movement | Opinion
Many activists gathered near Balgandharva auditorium in Pune on Tuesday, holding placards with a message: Jawab do (Give answers).
Every year since 2013, a group of people—mostly activists – gather near Balgandharva auditorium in Pune demanding justice for rationalist Narendra Dabholkar. This year was no exception as many of them gathered there on Tuesday holding placards with a message: Jawab do (Give answers).
The yearly scene at Ramji Shinde bridge near Balgandharva, the place where Dabholkar was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen on August 20, 2013, may not be reminiscent of protests during criminal trial at Los Angeles County Superior Court involving OJ Simpson but the two cases have something in similar if not everything.
On the evening of June 12, 1994, former National Football League player Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Browne Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were found stabbed to death. Subsequent arrest of Simpson and the trial afterwards turned case into black versus white, shown effectively through crime television series – American Crime Story – on Netflix. Simpson’s lawyers used his arrest and hearing as “another instance of implicating”, dividing opinion among America’s black and white communities.
Back home, the arrests of right-wing outfit Sanatan Sanstha members in the anti-superstition crusader’s murder hasn’t pleased many left-leaning activists as the case completes six years on Tuesday. They believe the real mastermind of Dabholkar murder is still at large and the probe agency has been delaying the arrest of the kingpin.
So far Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested eight people, including two alleged shooters Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar. The central probe agency, however, had to change its theory about shooters, who according to CBI’s earlier chargesheet were Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar.
Most of these arrests, which came after pressure from the high court, may have helped move the case in court, but those working in the field of anti-superstition aren’t convinced about the progress on.
The movement against superstition received attention after Dabholkar’s murder. From less than 2,000 workers, mainly from Maharashtra, a few years ago, Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, the organisation Dabholkar founded in late 1980s, now has over 6,000 registered members from across the country spreading his message of scientific temper.
