In a disturbing trend of increasing threats on the lives of progressives in Maharashtra, Dattaprasad Dabholkar, brother of slain rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and noted activist, has now received a death threat by suspected extremists.
An anonymous handwritten letter, written a week ago, was addressed to Dattaprasad Dabholkar by post threatening to kill him, famlily members of Dabholkar revealed, while not wishing to elaborate on the issue.
While Mr. Dattaprasad Dabholkar, an elder brother of the murdered rationalist, himself chose to downplay the threat, he has been accorded police protection by a State administration that is under severe popular pressure to nab the killers of Narendra Dabholkar and Communist leader and noted lawyer-activist Govind Pansare. Both were gunned down by motorbike-borne assailants the former in Pune in 2013 and the latter in February this year outside his home in Kolhapur district.
Mr. Dattaprasad is known for his incisive works on Swami Vivekananda, especially his expounding of the Indian philosopher’s thoughts and ideas in a secular framework as opposed to Vivekananda’s apotheosis by the political right.
According to the Dabholkar family, this has ruffled the feathers of the political Right, echoing their response to Mr. Pansare’s works on King Shivaji.
In March, noted activist-author Bharat Patankar received death threats in the form of hate letters from extremists for allegedly adopting ‘a conciliatory attitude’ towards the Muslim community.
