Bhima Koregaon: Dalit Assertion Is Only Getting Stronger A Year After The Violence // Bhim Army Chief Detained Ahead Of Bhima Koregaon Anniversary
On January 1, 2018,
Anjana Gaikwad, a 26-year-old Dalit activist from Pimpri Chinchvad town in
Pune, was heading towards the Bhima Koregaon Vijay
Stambh (victory column) on the outskirts of the city with her younger brother,
Santosh Shinde. Gaikwad and Shinde had planned to join the thousands of Dalits
from across Maharashtra who had gathered in Bhima Koregaon to pay tribute to
the Dalit soldiers who, as a part of a British army, defeated a Peshwa army in
1818 despite being outnumbered. 2018’s commemoration was to mark the 200th
anniversary of the victory.
Anand Teltumbde: The Myth of Bhima Koregaon Reinforces the Identities It Seeks to Transcend
But when the siblings’ bike reached Sanaswadi, a village near Bhima Koregaon, Gaikwad saw a violent mob furiously pelting stones at anyone wearing white clothes or carrying the blue flags associated with the Dalit movement. “They had hidden their faces with scarves, were carrying bottles and stones and came aggressively at us as we reached Sanaswadi. We left our bike and took shelter in a nearby house. Not a single shop was opened. The atmosphere was tense and that of a complete shutdown,” recalled Gaikwad, who runs a social group to help poor students in Pimpri Chinchwad. “After some time, the local resident who had given us shelter asked us to leave. When we came out, furious stone pelting was going on and vehicles were being torched by a mob carrying saffron flags. At that moment I thought we would not return home alive,” she said.
Bhim Army Chief Detained Ahead Of Bhima Koregaon Anniversary
Ahead of the one year anniversary of the violence witnessed at the Bhima Koregaon war memorial in Pune district on 1 January 2018, Pune police said it has taken preventive action against over 1,200 people to avoid repeat of the incident. In Mumbai, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad and some of his followers were detained on Friday. Azad, who is expected to be in Pune on 31 December and visit the memorial, was kept at Hotel Manali in Malad, with several police officers stationed outside his room,Indian Express reported. DCP Vinay Rathod was outside the main gate of the hotel, the daily said. On Saturday on Twitter, Azad posted photos from inside the hotel, showing police officials standing outside his room.
While police told the
daily that a few of Azad’s supporters had been detained for obstructing
traffic, an official told PTI that no activist, including Azad, had been
detained. Every year on 1
January, thousands of Dalits gather in Bhima
Koregaon, on the outskirts of Pune city, to mark the anniversary of a
battle won by a British army, largely comprising Dalit soldiers, against an
army of Peshwas in 1818. In 2018, the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of
the battle was marred by violence, carried out allegedly by Hindutva groups
carrying saffron flags.
The Communist Party of
India (Marxist) accused the Maharashtra government of repression and said that
its members had gone to meet Azad at Manali Hotel when the detention took
place. Azad was held at the
hotel under heavy police presence after being denied permission to hold a ‘Save
the Constitution’ rally at Worli’s Jamboree Maidan, the CPI (M) statement said.
It further alleged that hundreds of false cases had earlier been lodged against
several Dalit and human rights activists. Meanwhile, NCP leader
Jitendra Awhad Saturday tweeted that he met Azad at the hotel where he was
allegedly detained. Awhad dubbed Azad’s “detention” as “murder” of the latter’s
fundamental rights.
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