The eruption of caste violence in Maharashtra between members of two communities sent the BJP into a huddle on Wednesday, with its state unit chief Rao Saheb Danve rushing to Mumbai for a review meeting to be held there in the evening. The meeting is expected to be attended by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and senior party leaders including Chandrakant Patil.
As Parliament saw disruptions over the issue through the day, BJP leaders said that the violence was being handled by the State administration but that the political cost of the agitation needed to be contained. “The violence appears to be a direct result of the BJP’s success in mobilising support among Dalit communities and just as one incident in Una in Gujarat spawned a leadership like that of Jignesh Mewani, this should not be allowed to spiral out of control,” said a senior leader.
The BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular have been assiduously wooing Dalit communities across various states and, through acts like setting up memorials for Constitution-framer B.R. Ambedkar, attempting to shed BJP’s label of being an upper-caste party.
To this end, the RSS too released a strongly-worded statement condemning the violence and distancing itself from the incident, allegedly set off by two Hindutva activists said to be behind the desecration of the samadhi of Govind Gopal Mahar. Mahar, a Dalit hero, defied Mughal emperor Aurnagzeb and performing the last rites of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, a few kilometres away from another site of Dalit valour, the Bhima Koregaon battlefield, where a force of Mahars commanded by the British dealt a death blow to the Peshwas.
“The recent incidents in Koregaon, Pune and various other places in Maharashtra are very sad and painful. The RSS strongly condemns such violence feels it is despicable. Those who are found guilty should be punished as per law. Some forces are trying to create hatred and animosity among communities. People should not fall prey to such nefarious tactics,” said Manmohan Vaidya, RSS spokesperson.
What worried the BJP more were the reports that the Ramdas Athawale faction of the Republican Party of India, which is an NDA ally, was also upset with the incident in Bhima Koregaon. But Mr. Athawale, who is Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, told The Hindu that he was satisfied with the way the state government had handled the situation, and appealed for calm. Interestingly, he denied the possibility that Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani was involved in the violent incidents. “Police must have acted if they felt his speech had been instigating, but I don’t think it is related to the incident,” he said.
For the BJP it’s not just the worry of an anti-saffron Dalit mobilisation in Maharashtra, but that it would spread to other states. “Incidents are immediate, fallouts are long term,” said a senior BJP leader.
