Police have registered a first information report against the Sambhaji Brigade leader, Purshottam Khedekar, for “fanning anti-Brahmin sentiments” through his book, Shivrayanchya Badnamichi Kendre . The Maratha outfit leader has been charged under Sections 153 (A), 505 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code for promoting enmity between different castes. The complaint was lodged by Sham Pachpute, police Inspector Vinayak Kate told The Hindu .
Seeking to expose the “seeds of Shivaji's defamation,” the book has ignited protests in the State. It exhorts Marathas “to unite against Brahmins.” “We will have to consider Brahmins as our enemy: mental as well as social,” the author has written.
The police action has been welcomed by Ambedkarite Madhukar Ramteke and the Phule-Ambedkar historian Hari Narke. Mr. Ramteke told The Hindu : “Our movement is for rights and against inequality. We will not support the violence that is professed in the book. Even Babasaheb Ambedkar was against the oppressive ideology of Brahmins and not against any individual person.”
Mr. Khedekar did not respond to phone calls and text messages. Speaking to The Hindu in May after the protests over the book, he had said that the book was merely a revenge for all the anti-Maratha sentiments that had been spread through mythologies.
‘A struggle'
“There are reactions for every action and people should understand that. If they are ready to take back all the insults on Marathas, then even I will rectify my mistake. This is a struggle and it has begun,” Mr. Khedekar had said.
