Mumbai: A year after members and a few other attendees of the ‘Elgaar Parishad’ were arrested and branded as “urban Naxals”, the organisers came together once again on January 12. This time, the convention was organised under a fresh name – “Yuva Jaagar” – and over 200-odd human and cultural rights organisations came together to appeal to the masses to “put an end to the fascist government”.
The previous event, held on December 31, 2017, was called ‘Elgaar’, which loosely translates to ‘retaliation’. This year, the focus was on the youth and their issues, and called ‘Yuva Jaagar (youth awakening)’. There was severe backlash after the last Parishad from several Brahmin organisations and Hindutva groups. The state branded the event as pro-Naxal and anti-Modi, and one of its organisers, Sudhir Dhawale, was arrested in June last year for his alleged role in instigating violence at Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018. Dhawale and eight others are in prison in Pune.
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The anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon, which was won by the British army with soldiers from the Dalit community fighting against the Peshwa regime ruled by the Brahmin King Baji Rao II, is a major celebratory event for Dalits. The 200th anniversary drew tens of thousands of people to the venue.
The victims of the violence at Bhima Koregaon had accused Hindutva groups of the attack. Two veteran Hindutva leaders, Manohar alias Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote, were named as the masterminds behind the violence. While Ekbote was arrested for a brief period and later released on bail, the Maharashtra police failed to initiate any action against Bhide, even though the Supreme Court rejected his anticipatory bail application.
While this year’s gathering had a distinctly political tone, the shadow of the previous gathering was unmistakeable. The turnout was much smaller. Members of the Kabir Kala Manch, a socio-cultural group of young artists from the Dalit community, who were a part of the Elgaar Parishad, kept a low public profile this time.
The event was held on the birth anniversary of Jijamata, Chattrapati Shivaji’s mother, at the Rashtra Seva Dal auditorium in Pune. The founders of the event, Justice (retired) B.G. Kolse-Patil and Justice (retired) P.B. Sawant, addressed a gathering of over a thousand people.
Speaking at the event, Sawant said, “The only way forward is to ensure all like-minded forces get together and dislodge the fascist government.” Further hitting out at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government, Sawant said all that the establishment has done in past 4.5 years is to peddle lies and endanger democracy.
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“This government has no values or ethics. It has only cared for the rich of the country at the cost of the country’s poor. The present economic system is against the country’s poor farmers… We need to fight this out to ensure we save the poor…[of] this country from this dictatorial party,” he added. The videos of the event have been made public by the organisers on YouTube.
Kolse-Patil told The Wire that this year, the intention was to carry out the event on a much smaller scale compared to last year, when thousands had gathered at Shaniwarwada from across the country to attend Elgaar Parishad.
“We have been organising a public event for several years now. Each year, the theme is different. Like last year, since it was the 200th year of the battle of Bhima Koregaon and we knew several anti-caste organisations would be visiting Pune, we decided to talk about Brahmanism and the state. This year we focused on another pressing concern: the youth, agrarian crisis and poverty,” he added. He also added that the events are organised under different names every year.
This year too, the organisers had sought permission to hold the event at Shaniwarwada, a Brahmin-dominated area in Pune which symbolises the oppressive Peshwa regime of the 19th century. However, Pune civic authorities and the city police denied permission to the organisers to hold their proposed event at the Shaniwarwada Fort.
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Kolse-Patil, one of the most outspoken critics of the prime minister, expressed his concerns over the increasing violence in the name of “cow vigilantism” in the country. He also said, “There is a systematic attempt made to saffronise independent state machinery by the present regime. The CBI, RBI and other agencies are no more independent.”
He added that the alternative to the BJP, however, was not the Congress. “It is like old wine served in a new bottle. We need to speak up against oppression, organise ourselves and agitate for our rights. There is no easy way out,” he said.
This year, Baba Adhav, a veteran trade unionist of Maharashtra, also participated in the event. In his address, Adhav said that the prime minister and his close aide Amit Shah have indulged in a “dangerous game of dividing people in the name of caste and religion. Serious issues like rising inequality, granting equal rights and curbing free speech is nowhere the government’s concern.” He said the right to dissent and freedom of expression are being muzzled and those speaking up against injustice are branded as criminals.
On December 31, 2017, several anti-caste organisations, Left leaders and student activists had participated in the Elgaar Parishad in large numbers. Among those who spoke included Gujarat MLA and anti-caste leader Jignesh Mevani, Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Umar Khalid, Adivasi rights activist Soni Sori and Dalit rights activist Radhika Vemula, among others.