The lynching of three people to death at Gadchiroli village in Palghar district on 16th April 2020 has become a hot debate from a different angle. What make headings now are the pranks of Hindutwa brigade after their heinous attempts to exploit the incident for a communal clash failed. Saints of Juna Akhada monk community, Chikni Maharaj Kalpa Vrikshagiri (70), Susheelgiri Maharaj (30) and their driver Nilesh Telgade were killed in the attack. The saints were travelling to Surat from Mumbai to attend funeral of their guru Mahant Ramagiri. The trio were travelling through the village route to avoid the main road during the lockdown. Messages warning of child lifters were doing rounds in the village already. The villagers who saw the strangers at an unearthly hour suspected them and called up other people before inflicting violence. The police personnel who went to disperse the mob also were injured. The mob did not spare even the seventy-year old saint who pleaded for his life.
The incident got controversial after two days as the video of the violence were widely circulated in social media. More than for the agony of losing two saints, the incident got controversial for the research of the Hindutvavadis who wanted to exploit the opportunity to play the communal card. In the circulated video, someone among the mob was heard saying ‘oye bas’ while calling to stop the violence. However, the Hindutvavadis took it for a Muslim name and were yelling hysterically. A heinous propaganda went through from 18th to 21st April. The propaganda machinery cried for the killed saints and wondered where the intellectuals and artists who express rage over mob lynching have gone.
The Maharashtra BJP which has been sitting in frustration over the loss of power in the state, took up the issue as if to submerge the whole state in a communal frenzy. Even Kerala Hindu Aikyavedi did observe a black day. The social media handles of the Hindutva brigades were filled with calls to open up a new war-front against Islamic Jihadis.
As the issue turned controversial, Maharashtra home ministry intervened in the matter with more caution. 101 people who were involved in the incident were arrested soon. Home Minister Anil Deshmukh shared the details of the arrested with the media on 22nd April. He published the names of all the 101 people arrested in which no Muslim was there. . Not only that, the Home Minister even emphasized that ‘101 people arrested, no Muslim included.’ It became clear that the saints were killed by the tribals who were Hindus. That for the Hindutva propaganda machinery was like an inflated balloon blasting upon a pin tip.
Not only the Sangh parivar mob, even responsible leaders were part of the vicious campaign. Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditanath played their own roles. The stance of Arnab Goswami, Republic TV Editor, was even strange. He filled the TV screen with a debate in his channel on 21st April with communally instigated cries based on the wrong notion that Muslims were behind the lynching. During the debate, the television anchor abused free lance journalists, human right activists, writers, artists and many others. He did not spare Congress chief Sonia Gandhi either. The Congress activists who were provoked on the abuse, filed cases against him in various parts of the country. More than 100 FIRs are registered against him as the time this is being written. Arnab obtained a favourable judgement on Friday from the Supreme Court which considered his plea seeking immunity from arrests for three weeks. The Supreme Court which is slow in other cases citing to Covid 19 measures, has shown extraordinary enthusiasm in the case of Arnab’s plea.
The Palghar incident underscores the Sangh parivar habit of exploiting every incident to manipulate them for their communal agenda. They used the Covid 19 pandemic for anti-Muslim campaign with reference to Tabligh Jamaat. The Palghar incident was also taken in the same line. One can only wonder how fatal a virus they are carrying within themselves!