Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar on July 17 said that he would file an affidavit by July 24 seeking a cross-examination of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in connection with the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon clashes before the inquiry commission probing the causes of the violence.
Mr. Fadnavis was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra (2014-19) when the clashes occurred in Bhima-Koregaon and other adjoining villages in Pune district, leaving one person dead besides heightening the social tension across the State.
Following the clashes, the then State government had set up a two-member inquiry commission comprising retired Kolkata High Court Chief Justice J.N. Patel and former Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sumit Mullick in February 2018 to probe the sequence of events leading up to the New Year’s Day violence that year.
Editorial | State of conflict: on the Bhima-Koregaon violence
Appearing before the commission during its hearing in Pune on July 17, Mr. Ambedkar reiterated his call to summon both Mr. Fadnavis and Mr. Mallick to depose on grounds that the former was the CM and the latter was the Chief Secretary when the clashes erupted.
Mr. Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, said there was no record on the commission’s inquiry thus far as to what action was taken by the Fadnavis administration on the intelligence inputs allegedly received regarding the violence that would erupt on January 1, 2018.
Intelligence loopholes
“Actionable intelligence comes in, but there is no probe [by the then administration] on the basis of that. So, I have told the commission that I will be submitting an affidavit before July 24 giving information on the intelligence loopholes that should have been plugged by the then administration and who all ought to be probed for sitting on intelligence that was received,” Mr. Ambedkar said.
Also Read | Bhima-Koregaon case transferred to NIA, confirms Home Ministry
Remarking that the intelligence failure in the Bhima Koregaon case was similar to that observed in the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai when “actionable inputs were received but were not acted upon”, Mr. Ambedkar said there had been letters circulating at the time that some villages would be opposing the bicentenary celebrations of the Bhima Koregaon battle (for which Ambedkarites had gathered in Bhima Koregaon village in large numbers).
“So, were these letters fake or real? If they were real, then who sat on those letters without acting on them?” he said.
The commission had twice issued a “letter of request” to Mr. Ambedkar, asking him to appear on March 27 and June 5. While he did not appear at the time, Mr. Ambedkar had requested the commission to call Mr. Fadnavis and Mr. Mallick prior to his deposition.
Mr. Ambedkar, himself a lawyer, stated that he wanted to cross-examine them before the commission.
Soon after the clashes, the VBA chief blamed fringe right-wing Hindutva leaders Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote for instigating the violence of January 1, 2018.
Lakhs of Dalits had converged on the obelisk to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the 1818 battle of Bhima-Koregaon.
For several Dalit activists, the narrative of the Bhima-Koregaon battle, where Mahar community members fought under the Union Jack to allegedly defeat Peshwa Bajirao II’s numerically superior forces in 1818, signified a major step in the ongoing struggle against caste oppression and Brahminical domination.
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s visit to the Bhima Koregaon obelisk on January 1, 1927 revitalised the memory of the battle for the Dalit community, making it a rallying point and an assertion of pride.
