'Hateful lit, speeches, songs at Elgaar Parishad triggered violence'

The violence had led to one person's death, scores being injured and huge damage to public property. File Pic

Kabir Kala Manch's Elgaar Parishad triggered the wave of violence in the city, the Pune police have claimed. The event was held on last December 31 to mark the 200th year of the Battle of Bhima-Koregaon. Rohith Vemula's mother Radhika had inaugurated the conference at Shaniwar Wada, and speakers at the event were Jigesh Mevani, a Dalit leader and newly-elected Gujarat MLA, Umar Khalid, activist and JNU student, Soni Sori, a tribal rights activist, and Vinay Ratan Singh, national president of the Bhim Army.

The Parishad problem
In her address, Radhika allegedly said, "The scales of justice are different for Indians based on their caste. My son was killed by ministers Smriti Irani, Bandaru Dattatreya and BJP MLC Ramchandra Rao."

Investigators have claimed that the organisers made no attempt to conceal the strong political current underlying the event, which was attended by more than 5,000 people. They also said that a pamphlet for the pre-event conference made an appeal to masses, mainly Dalits, tribals and minorities, to unite and take inspiration from the heroes of the Bhima-Koregaon battle to defeat the "new Peshwas" - BJP, RSS and other "Hindutva" forces - Shiv Sena, Abhinav Bharat, Sanatan Sanstha, and Sri Ram Sene, as well as gau rakshaks and the "anti-Romeo squad". The pamphlet named the ATS, CBI and even R&AW as allies of "casteist" forces.

'We have evidence'
The police have filed a criminal case against Mevani and Khalid for allegedly instigating the masses that resulted in the riots. Officers claimed they have evidence and hence filed an FIR on January 8 on the complaint of Tushar Ramesh Damgude, 37, a businessman and resident of Katraj.

As per the FIR, Sudhir Dhawale, anchor of the programme, Jyoti Jagtap, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaychor, Harshali Potdar and many others sang songs and gave talks that incited violence. They allegedly said the fight against the new Peshwas has begun and they [people] need to fight.

The FIR said Dhawale, in his speech, said, "Jab zulm ho, toh bagaawat honi chahiye; agar bagaawat na ho, toh behtar hai ke ye raat dhalne se pehle, ye sheher jalke raakh ho jaaye… (When there is mistreatment, one should oppose it; if there's no opposition, it's better if the entire city burns down)"

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