Lakhs pay tribute on Valour Day

Victory pillar

Parner, Pune: Amidst tight security, more than 10 lakh citizens from across India paid tributes at the Vijay Stambha - victory pillar - to commemorate the 202nd anniversary of the Koregaon-Bhima battle on Wednesday.

The Dalit community observes the Koregaon-Bhima battle anniversary as Valour Day. They gathered in large numbers at the Vijay Stambha raised by the British regime in Parner village on the Pune-Ahmednagar highway. Violence had broken out on January 1, 2018 during the 200th celebrations of the battle, killing one person and injuring several others. To prevent any such incident this year, besides 10,000 policemen deployed at the spot, there were 50 Deputy Superintendents of Police from Maharashtra and other states and 14 investigation agencies had camped in the vicinity. More than 250 villagers from the Shaurya Academy, Wagholi assisted the police in controlling the mob. The Pune city police had formed a Police Private Security Partnership Programme from which around 200 security guards including bouncers were also deployed. Shops were closed as a precautionary measure.

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi president and grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Prakash Ambedkar also paid tributes. "While renaming the Marathwada University as Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, some political parties had rioted to gain political advantage. This time also, after the formation of the new government in the state, some leaders planned to riot here. But we worked in tandem with the government and foiled all their attempts," Ambedkar said. He said he would elaborate on the topic later.

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