Former Maharashtra Home Minister and Nationalist Congress Party legislator Jayant Patil cited a suspicion that the “state government may itself have been interested in inciting the violence”.
Just as the Bharatiya Republican Party Bahujan Mahasangh chief Prakash Ambedkar led a protest march in Mumbai, demanding the arrest of Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide for allegedly inciting violence in Koregaon-Bhima earlier this year, the Opposition trained guns on the Devendra Fadnavis government over the issue.
Former Maharashtra Home Minister and Nationalist Congress Party legislator Jayant Patil cited a suspicion that the “state government may itself have been interested in inciting the violence”.
“No cabinet minister visited Koregaon-Bhima on the day of the violence. They had already paid a visit. I have a strong suspicion that people in the government knew what was about to happen, and the government chose to neglect it. This raises the question on whether the government itself was interested in seeing that the violence broke out,” Patil alleged during a discussion on law and order in the legislative assembly.
Incidentally, Patil, who is also the group leader of the NCP in the Lower House, did not raise the demand for Bhide’s arrest. Bhide, the main accused in the case, had earlier while refuting accusations raised against him as baseless, claimed he was at Jayant Patil’s residence in Sangli’s Islampur for the funeral procession of Patil’s mother on the day the riots took place.
The violence that occurred on January 1 during the bicentennial event to commemorate the Battle of Bhima Koregaon, had led to the death of one person and widespread protests across Maharashtra.
Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, had earlier alleged that the violence was “state sponsored”.
Meanwhile, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, while participating in the debate over law and order in the Assembly, targeted the Fadnavis government over the death of Justice Brijgopal Harikishan Loya. “Who does the state government want to shield? Why is it hesitant to initiate even a probe in the matter?” Chavan asked. “Who is being inconvenienced over the demand for a fair probe in the matter?” Chavan asked, while not naming anyone in particular.
Tempers also flared in the House when Patil alleged that “fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya donated Rs 35 crore in cheque to the BJP in 2016” before escaping the country. BJP’s Atul Bhatkalkar took strong objection to the reference.
The Shiv Sena, too, lashed out at the Chief Minister-led home department over the project for the modernisation of the police machinery. Party legislator Sunil Prabhu alleged that only 37 per cent funds earmarked for the modernisation had been utilised in the last five years. He alleged that the government had spent less than 50 per cent of the central funds disbursed for coastal security measures.