A day after the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (ANiS) launched the ‘Jawab Do’ campaign on the fifth anniversary of Dr. Narendra Dabholkar's murder, a number of fringe right-wing outfits under the umbrella of the Sanatan Sanshtha staged a march in the old part of the city, protesting against calls for outlawing the outfit.
The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) and the Veer Savarkar Yuva Sena, among others, participated in the two-hour march, which began at the Bajirao Road area and ended at the Kasba Peth area.
Targeting the late Dr. Dabholkar’s anti-superstition outfit, the demonstrators carried placards which read ‘ Jawab Do ANiS’ and ‘We are all Hindus’. “We will not let the government proscribe us at any cost. The agencies are persecuting our members, who are innocent. We are a legal outfit and have always abided by the Constitution,” said Parag Gokhale of the HJS.
On the arrest of Sanatan sympathiser and terror suspect Vaibhav Raut, Mr. Gokhale said a large number of people attend programmes hosted by the Sanstha, and it doesn’t mean they were activists of the organisation.
The repeated allegations against them was a deliberate ploy to malign the organisation, Mr. Gokhale said.
Sanstha members further denied allegations that the outfit had any connection with the murders of rationalist Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, Communist leader and writer Govind Pansare, scholar M.M. Kalburgi and journalist Gauri Lankesh.
“Without concrete evidence, the then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan put the blame on the Sanatan Sanstha for Dr. Dabholkar’s death. If he had not acted so rashly, then perhaps the real killers would have been found today,” said Mr. Gokhale.
In 2011, when the Congress-led UPA government was in power at the Centre, Mr. Chavan, as the Chief Minister, had sought for a ban on the Sanstha under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on grounds that it was ‘divisive’ and ‘violent’.
On Monday, Mr. Chavan, along with senior Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, had reiterated his call for a ban on the Goa-based outfit while alleging that the real masterminds of the crimes were being protected.
At the same time, Mr. Chavan questioned the timing of arrests (of Raut, Sharad Kalaskar, Sudhanwa Gondhalekar and Sachin Andure) made by the probing agencies just before August 20 on Dr. Dabholkar’s fifth death anniversary, pointing out sudden changes in the investigation narrative. “Each time, new names are coming up in the investigation, giving it a completely new direction,” he said.
