Maharashtra: When hate is the bait, some fall hook, line and sinker

Maharashtra's minister for fisheries and ports, Nitesh Rane, is known for hate speech against Muslims — the Washington-based Hate Lab counted 24 abusive verbal attacks delivered in 2024 alone.

When this defender of the Hindu faith learned that Shivaji Kamble, a lowly BDO, had overturned the Madhi gram sabha’s resolution to ban Muslim traders from the annual Madhi Chi Yatra, he swung into action. “The BDO should remember that a Hindutva sarkar is in power in Maharashtra... I urge the villages to again pass the resolution. If all villagers sign, then how will the BDO reject it?” Rane asked.

On 22 February, Sanjay Markad, the sarpanch of Madhi village (near Ahilyanagar, known as Ahmednagar before the name-changing gang got to it) and president of the Kanifnath Devasthan Trust, had passed the resolution banning the Muslim community from the mela.

This merited a visit. Rane arrived in Madhi and declared, “Eid is round the corner”, a not-so-veiled reference to threats made in September 2024, also in Ahmednagar, of entering mosques and hunting down Muslims one by one ('chun chun kar marenge').

The BDO told the media that he had been directed to investigate a complaint from Muslim villagers in Madhi. The investigation revealed that the gram sabha had been convened to discuss the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana housing scheme.

Most villagers claimed they were unaware of any resolution against Muslims — their signatures were collected on plain paper as proof of attendance. The BDO’s report also noted that the resolution was not recorded on the gram sabha’s official letterhead, but on plain paper. Although 116 signatures were gathered, only 98 were from actual residents of the village, falling short of the required quorum of 100. Emboldened by Rane’s visit and provocative speech, however, Markad has dug in his heels.

His reasons are too vile to bear listing: Muslims were unclean, did not bathe regularly, slaughtered animals, cheated people and committed crimes. It was necessary, he said, to keep Muslims away from the mela to prevent them from stealing mobile phones, and Hindu women (of course: how could he not invoke the standard canard of love jihad). Numbers, specific instances or crime reports were not needed — his word apparently was enough.

He also failed to explain why the village had no such ‘problem’ before. With a reported population of 3,500, Madhi is home to 60 to 70 Muslim families who have lived there for generations. The area has no record of communal clashes or conflicts.

A ground report published in The Quint quoted villagers saying, under condition of anonymity, that they have never had any trouble with Muslims. What Hindus claim as the samadhi of Shri Chaitanya Kanifnath Maharaj, Muslims revere as the dargah of Shah Ramzan Mahi Sawar Chishti. Both faiths visit the site, particularly the nomadic tribes from neighbouring Gujarat and Rajasthan.

As fairs go, the Madhi mela is relatively minor but it provides a brisk business opportunity, particularly in toys, garments, condiments, food, cosmetics, bangles and jewellery.

The ban on Muslim traders and threats are driven by the desire to exclude them. On 1 March 2025, when Rane visited the village, Muslims were ‘advised’ to stay indoors. Now, many have sought police protection, and some have taken legal action against the sarpanch. A dispute between the temple trust and the waqf board over 40 acres of land surrounding the temple may have sparked the ‘resolution’. Despite two FIRs being filed against Rane in Ahilyanagar district, no action has been taken.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the home portfolio, appears to view this as a routine matter unworthy of his attention. A former lawyer, Fadnavis has done little to curb Nitesh Rane’s actions, viewing him instead as an asset.

In an interview with the BBC, Ramakant Markad, former president of the Kanifnath Devasthan Trust, stated that both Hindu and Muslim priests once served at the temple without any conflict. Muslims own 9 to 10 shops within the temple premises. The one that sells materials for prayer and worship is named Saiprasad and run by Jaan Mohammad Patel.

Another shopkeeper, Sheikh Chand Wazir, dismissed the allegations against Muslims as unfounded, emphasising that they have long been devotees of both saints and sell their goods with humility and devotion. “Kanifnath is not the god of one community, but of all of us,” he said.

Tension is mounting in the village as preparations for the mela — set to begin around Holi (14 March) and conclude on Gudi Parva at the end of the month — intensify.

‘Deva bhau’ and ‘Laadla bhai’ at loggerheads

Once brothers in arms, these two seem to have taken up arms against each other. We’re talking about Eknath Shinde, a.k.a. ‘laadla bhai’ and Devendra Fadnavis, who Shinde calls deva bhau (elder brother).

According to Sanjay Raut’s weekly column in Saamana, Shinde has been advised to merge his party with the BJP if he hopes to become chief minister again. Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP from Shiv Sena (UBT), claims the advice was dispensed by Amit Shah at an early-morning meeting in a Pune hotel, where Shinde was reportedly summoned. Both have denied the rumours, with Fadnavis quipping that Raut seems to harbour aspirations of becoming a screenplay writer.

Law and order and women’s safety have become major flashpoints following the release of gruesome photographs of Beed sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh’s murder, a woman’s rape on a bus in Pune, and Union minister of state for youth affairs and sports, Raksha Khadse, filing a police complaint against political party workers who stalked and molested her teenage daughter and friends.

The Beed murder photos, recovered from the accused and included in the police chargesheet, sparked such outrage that Fadnavis, who had previously blocked calls for minister Dhananjay Munde’s resignation, could no longer avoid it. On 4 March, Munde, a key member of the NCP (Ajit Pawar), resigned — three months after the murder. The photos, he said, shocked him so much he felt morally compelled to step down. Nobody believes that. It’s Munde’s henchmen who carried out the murder he felt so shocked by.

Shinde, too, has reason to be embarrassed. Turns out that the political workers who stalked and molested Khadse’s daughter were affiliated with his party, under legislator Chandrakant Patil.

Fadnavis, who had previously shown little interest in fast-tracking the Beed trial, has now ordered the arrest of the stalkers and initiated an investigation. While no bulldozer has been deployed, the message to Shinde and Ajit Pawar doesn’t require artificial intelligence to decipher.

Fadnavis himself is in the dock for the deteriorating law and order situation. According to a Mumbai Police report, an average of 201 cases of molestation were registered each month in 2024, up from 179 cases in 2023. Additionally, 51 cases of rape involving minor girls were reported monthly in 2024, compared to 48 in 2023. The number of adult women being raped has increased to an average of 36 cases per month in 2024. All the laadla bhais have not made their laadli behens safer.