Tag: Palghar

For NT-DNT Communities in Maharashtra, Swachh Bharat Has Not Brought Clean Toilets

Classified as ‘illegal’ settlers by the state, nomadic and denotified communities are still denied access to basic sanitation facilities, a recent audit has found.

Mumbai: For a large settlement of the nomadic Potraj community in Titwala, a small town in Thane district, the Narendra Modi government’s flagship Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India Mission, has no meaning.

The families here are still forced to defecate in the open. While men make do with the open space available around them, women have to shell out Rs 5 to access a private toilet structure nearby – an expense that the wandering community, living in makeshift tents, can barely manage.

Twenty kilometres away, at the circus ground in Ambarnath town, a similar situation plays out. Here, the women from the Mariyayi community, also nomadic, have continued to suffer silently for many generations. The settlement, with over 50 household belonging to the community, doesn’t have a toilet built by the civic authorities. The dilapidated structure that exists is unusable. A poor water connection and inadequate arrangement for waste disposal pushes women to discard their menstrual pads in the toilet. This, the women share, is done as they lack access to a fully operational, clean toilet.

The condition of the nomadic community in different settlements across Thane and neighbouring Palghar district was first identified as a serious structural problem when field officers of an NGO, Anubhuti Trust, started conducting a door-to-door toilet audit there. The audit found that over 80% of the nomadic and denotified communities continue to live without access to adequate toilet facilities. The women of the community, the audit shows, have faced a plethora of health issues and fear of physical and sexual assault during their daily ablutions.

During the audit conducted by Anubhuti Trust. Photo: Special arrangement

Anubhuti, a women-led organisation working closely with the communities, has identified and trained activists from the marginalised identities to carry out the toilet audit in the two districts. This one-of-a-kind audit focused on the community which finds no space in any public policy building exercise.

Deepa Pawar, founder of Anubhuti, said that the organisation has been working with the NT-DNT community for a long time and the lack of toilet has been a plaguing issue in every settlement. “The community, with no land or belongings to call their own, have for long wandered from one place to another. When they squat at some place, they fear police and civic administration backlash. Since the state looks at them as “illegal” settlers, the community is made to believe that their demand for clean water and toilet facilities is also illegal.”

Also read: A Failed Attempt to Create an Equally Sanitary India

The moment you are told you are “illegal”, you don’t ask for your basic rights, said a community leader, Kiran. The related violation of human rights and systemic violence, she said, don’t get addressed either. So when a 10-year-old boy fell into the public toilet tank and died in Lohar chawl of Kalwa, it was only looked at as an accidental death. A 60-year-old woman’s fatal fall because of the slippery, dilapidated toilet structure in her settlement was attributed to her carelessness. “We came across so many stories where newlywed women were unwilling to stay with their husbands because the settlement lacked proper toilet facilities,” Pawar said.

Deepa Pawar (extreme right). Photo: Special arrangement

Not every community stays in makeshift settlements. Some who live in concrete structures, too, said the state has neglected them. In the long list of problems, toilets, although a serious social and health concern, find very little space for discussion. A focused study, many women shared, helped them raise their everyday indignity and health concerns.

Maharashtra has close to 50 different nomadic and denotified tribes. These communities have a lot of diversity and different life styles. The communities’ needs, their social anxieties and concerns seldom make it to government’s policies. Most communities, because of their migratory lifestyle, are missed out from the decennial census exercise too. “When most communities don’t get enumerated, how do we expect the state to provide them their fundamental rights and government facilities,” a community leader asked.

During the audit conducted by Anubhuti Trust. Photo: Special arrangement

The ongoing audit is being carried out by field officers trained by Anubhuti. The field officers, also from the community, were trained to capture three crucial aspects – the existing infrastructure, experiences of the community, especially the women and disabled among them, and the voices of community leaders to document their ongoing struggles. Capacity building workshops focused on gender sensitisation, domestic and internal law and deeper caste understanding.

“Since all our auditors come from the (nomadic) community, they don’t need to be told about discrimination and neglect,” Pawar added.

Heavy Rains in Maharashtra’s Thane, Palghar Districts, NDRF Rescues 100

In Badlapur Wangni, 70 animals and 10 people were rescued and four trees fell in Datta Wadi area.

Thane/Palghar: Heavy rains pounded Maharashtra’s Thane and Palghar districts adjoining Mumbai during the night and on Thursday morning, which caused inundation and boulder crashes at various places, disrupted train services and marooned some villages, officials said.

Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were roped in to rescue hundreds of stranded people, they said.

Rail tracks at Umbermali station near Kasara were “submerged up to the platform level” and there were boulder crashes in the Ghat section.

“Train services were suspended,” district authorities said, adding that work to remove the boulders was underway.

A bridge at Sapgaon in Sahapur taluka of Thane suffered extensive damage due to the heavy downpour, tehsildar (revenue officer) Nilima Suryavanshi said, adding that no one was injured and traffic movement on the bridge was suspended.

The Modak Sagar dam in Sahapur started overflowing at 3.24 am on Thursday and two of its gates were opened to release the water, a message from the district headquarters said.

Also Read : Rain Continues to Lash Mumbai, Death Toll Rises

Some villages in the Sahapur taluka were marooned, Suryavanshi said, adding that local authorities with the help of the NDRF rescued hundreds of people from those places.

In Bhatsai village, which is located on a hillock, stranded people could not come out and were shifted to a school in the locality, she said.

In Vashind near Sahapur, flood waters entered a housing complex and its residents were shifted to a zilla parishad school with the help of the NDRF, the official said.

In Cherpoli, some stranded people were rescued with the help of boats, she said.

In Bhiwandi taluka of Thane, a number of people stranded in the water-logged areas of Padgha, Kawad, Ganesh Nagar and Khairpada were rescued with the help of the NDRF and the Thane Disaster Response Force teams, tehsildar Adik Patil said.

A number of people were also rescued from flooded localities near the banks of the Kamwari river in Bhiwandi, another official said.

In Badlapur Wangni, 10 people and 70 animals were rescued from an ashram, officials said.

Besides, people stranded in some inundated areas of Kasara and Titwala in Thane were also shifted to zilla parishad schools, they said.

Thane’s regional disaster management cell chief Santosh Kadam said they received 34 calls of tree falls in the city, but no one was injured in the incidents.

Four trees fell in Datta Wadi area of Mumbra, following which local firemen rushed to the spot.

As a precautionary measure, residents of six houses there were shifted, the official said.

Water entered some houses at Ganesh Nagar in the wee hours and around 40 people were later rescued from there by the disaster response teams, Kadam said.

The Nashik-Jawhar route was closed following a landslide and operations there are likely to resume by Thursday evening, Palghar Collector Dr Manik Gursal said in a message, and asked people to use the Trambak-Deogaon-Khodala route.

Various places witnessed flooding in Vasai, Virar and other locations in Palghar, but no loss of life was reported so far, officials said.

COVID-19 Is Just Another Problem in Palghar’s Adivasi Villages

Despite having the highest positivity rate in Maharashtra, Palghar’s Adivasi communities are sceptical about testing and vaccinations.

Palghar, a predominantly Adivasi district spread over eight blocks, was carved out of Thane district in Maharashtra in 2014. The Western Express Highway which starts in Mumbai and connects Maharashtra to Gujarat passes through this district – dividing it almost uniformly into a prosperous western region and an under-developed eastern region. In the east, blocks such as Wada and Vikramgad have industrial estates that provide employment opportunities to the locals. However, there are two blocks – Jawhar and Mokhada – that are surrounded by tall mountains and deep valleys rendering them largely inaccessible. These areas are populated sparsely with indigenous Adivasi communities, who have been historically neglected.

As a founder of Raah Foundation, a nonprofit that works with indigenous Adivasi communities, I visit Jawhar and Mokhada often to meet the villagers and plan, implement and monitor different programmes.

Death stares us in the face

When people in their communities die, the Adivasis of Jawhar and Mokhada have a tradition of putting up posters with a picture of the deceased and a condolence message outside their village boundaries.

As we approach Jawhar on a humid Monday morning, it is heartbreaking to see these posters in almost all the villages that we drive past on our way to the block headquarters. It is a striking visual image of the devastation that the second wave of COVID-19 has wreaked in these Adivasi communities.

Mostly illiterate, the Adivasis of these two vulnerable blocks are confused by the sheer number of deaths around them. They don’t know what is happening, are scared of getting tested, and don’t like swabs being taken from their nose and throat.

Palghar is one of the worst affected districts in Maharashtra

As of May 8, 2021, the weekly positivity rate in Palghar is the highest among the 36 districts in Maharashtra at 40.85%; most of these positive cases are in the more urbanised Vasai block. In Jawhar, the positivity rate is 16.47%. Despite being the third-smallest block in the district in terms of population, it is the third highest in terms of positivity rate after Palghar and Vasai, the two largest blocks.

There is no dearth of testing kits in the district; the local administration has ensured that there are enough. However, when the villagers in Jawhar come to know that a doctor or government official has come to the neighbourhood village for testing, they run away to the surrounding jungles.

Also read: Why India’s COVID-19 Catastrophe Is Indeed a ‘Crime Against Humanity’

I speak to a doctor from a primary health centre who visits these villages. He tells me that on some days he ends up going from one empty village to another, without getting to meet anyone. I meet a group of women near a well – they have no masks on and maintain no physical distancing. When I ask them about the doctor’s visits, they all laugh. It’s as if this game of hide and seek with government officials has become their favourite activity.

Their laugh, however, masks the fear that is widespread in this area: If they test positive for the virus, they will be sent away to isolation centres, people will look at them and their families with suspicion, and treat them as outcasts. As a result, most of the people here do not disclose if they have any symptoms, and continue with their daily routines – maskless – leading to them becoming spreaders.

The rejection of masks is rampant. The villagers only wear them when they visit the market or go outside their village. I stop to speak to few villagers to ask them where their mask was. They said there was no COVID-19 and that they didn’t need masks.

There is denial all over the block

In the rare cases where people do get admitted to isolation centres, they do not complete the mandatory 14-day isolation period. As soon as they stop experiencing symptoms, they declare themselves negative and go back to their families, once again leading to the unfettered spread of the disease.

Also read: To Prevent Vaccine Policy Becoming a Political Football, Formulate a Collaborative Plan

In the case of vaccines, the area is buzzing with multiple rumours about their efficacy, effectiveness, and side effects. One unmarried young man tells me that the vaccine will destroy his ability to father a child. A middle-aged woman says that the vaccine will create multiple reactions in her body and render her bedridden for a week. She needs to fetch water, cook, wash and cannot afford to be bedridden. An elderly woman tells me that death is around the corner for her anyway so why bother with a vaccine. Some of the younger, educated men complain that going for two doses is painful and irritating; they might have considered it if there was only one dose.

COVID-19 is just another problem

The district administration has built a facility to treat COVID-19 patients. Further, they are also monitoring cases, encouraging people to get tested, and counselling them to prevent the spread of rumours. However, there is little they can do in the face of the local communities’ unwillingness to engage.

For us city-dwellers, it’s hard to fathom why the villagers won’t see the situation for what it is, given the rapidly rising number of deaths around them. However, it is also possible that given the many gruelling challenges of their daily lives – hunger, water scarcity, poverty, and malnourishment – COVID-19 is just one more problem that they have to handle, and is not worth any additional attention.

Dr Sarika Kulkarni is Founder-Director, Raah Foundation. Prior to this, she served as the CEO of IIFL Foundation, the CSR arm of IIFL group of companies. She has a doctorate in management, a postgraduate degree in CSR from AIT (Bangkok), and a postgraduate qualification in social impact strategy from the University of Pennsylvania.

This article was originally published on India Development Review.

Palghar Mob Lynching: 19 More Arrested, Five Minors Detained

An official said so far 248 accused have been arrested for the mob violence, of whom 105 have been granted bail.

Palghar: The Maharashtra CID Crime Branch has arrested 19 more persons, one of them aged 70, in connection with the mob lynching of two sadhus and their driver in the Palghar district in April, an official said on Wednesday.

Besides, five juveniles were detained by the police in connection with the April 16 incident which took place in Gadchinchale village under Kasa police station limits of the district, he said. The arrests and detentions took place on Tuesday, the official said.

Those arrested included a 70-year-old man, an M. Tech degree holder and a professional employed as a manager in a well-known company, he said.

Also read: How the Palghar Lynching Was Relentlessly Communalised on Social Media

The official said so far 248 accused have been arrested for the mob violence, of whom 105 have been granted bail.

Also, 15 minors have been detained so far in the case, he added.

Those arrested on Tuesday were produced before a local magistrate on Wednesday and remanded in 14-day judicial custody, their counsel Amrut Adikari said.

The five minors were produced before a juvenile court at Bhiwandi in adjoining Thane district and sent to remand home, he said.

The brutal mob attack took place amid rumours that child-lifters were roaming in the area during the lockdown.

The case, initially probed by the Palghar police, was later handed over to the CID, which has already filed charge-sheets. The lynching victims were identified by the police as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70), Sushil Giri Maharaj (35) and their driver Nilesh Telgade (30).

Palghar Mob Lynching: 3 Policemen Dismissed From Service

Two seers and their driver lynched by a mob at Gadchinchale village in Palghar on April 16. They were travelling in a car to Surat to attend a funeral in the lockdown.

Palghar: Three police personnel have been dismissed from service in connection with the Palghar mob lynching case in Maharashtra, a senior official said on Sunday.

These police personnel are assistant police inspector Anandrao Kale, who was in charge of Kasa Police Station in Palghar when the incident took place on April 16, the official said.

Two others are assistant sub inspector Ravi Salunke and constable Naresh Dhodi, he said.

“The Inspector General (IG) of Police, Konkan Range dismissed the trio from service through an order issued on Saturday,” the official added.

Also read: To Counter Communalisation, Maharashtra Govt Releases Names of Accused in Palghar Lynching

These three police personnel, along with their five other colleagues, had been placed under suspension following the incident, he said.

Two seers and their driver were lynched by a mob at Gadchinchale village in Palghar on April 16 when they were travelling in a car to Surat (Gujarat) to attend a funeral amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

The victims were identified by the police as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70), Sushil Giri Maharaj (35) and their driver Nilesh Telgade (30).

The brutal mob attack took place amid rumours that child-lifters were roaming in the area.

As many as 154 people have been arrested and 11 juveniles detained in connection with the incident. The accused in the case were charged with murder, armed rioting and using criminal force to prevent a public servant from doing is duty, among other offences, police said.

The case was later handed over to the Maharashtra Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for probe. It has filed three charge sheets in the case.

After the incident caused an uproar, the state government had suspended Kale, under whose jurisdiction the crime took place, and seven other policemen. Besides, over 35 police constables and personnel of other ranks were transferred in the wake of the mob attack.

The government had also sent the then Palghar district police chief, Gaurav Singh, on forced leave.

As Rains Begin in Mumbai, Maharashtra and Gujarat Brace for Cyclone Nisarga

Movement of people along the Mumbai coastline has been prohibited till Thursday afternoon.

New Delhi: Cyclone ‘Nisarga’ will make landfall along the Maharashtra coast on Wednesday with high wind speed ranging up to 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph besides heavy rainfall and storm in Mumbai and other coastal areas of the state, the Home Ministry said.

The storm is likely to impact Mumbai, Thane and other coastal districts of Maharashtra like Raigad and Palghar along with Valsad, Navsari, Surat, Bhavnagar and Bharuch districts of Gujarat and Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

Preparations for the impending cyclone were discussed at a meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), headed by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, a Home Ministry statement said.

Movement of people along the Mumbai coastline has been prohibited from midnight to Thursday afternoon, the city police said on Tuesday.

An order under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was being issued, the police said.

The NDRF has deployed 40 teams in Maharashtra, Gujarat and UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

Additional teams are also being airlifted. Rescue and relief teams of the Indian Army and the Indian Navy along with ships and aircrafts of the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force have been put on standby. Ships of the Indian Coast Guard are already engaged in rescuing fishermen at sea.

In this satellite image taken from India Meteorological Department (IMD) at 19:30 IST shows a depression formed by Cyclone Nisarga. Photo: PTI

Officers of state governments and the UT apprised the NCMC of preparatory measures taken by them. They also assured that adequate stocks of essential supplies were available with them and that all emergency services were in readiness.

Bulk SMS facility provided by Telecom Department was being used to warn residents likely to be affected by the cyclone and evacuation of people was also underway.

Reviewing the preparedness of the states and central agencies, the cabinet secretary directed that all necessary measures be taken to complete evacuation of people from low-lying areas lying in the cyclone’s path and ensure the return of all fishermen from the sea, the statement said.

The states and central agencies were told that special efforts may be made to ensure that essential medical services to COVID patients are not disrupted.

Mass evacuations in Gujarat

The Gujarat government has evacuated over 78,000 people from four districts located near the coastline and deployed 19 teams of NDRF and SDRF, officials have said.

“A total of 78,971 persons living near the seashore in Valsad, Surat, Navsari and Bharuch districts will be shifted to safer locations. 1,727 villagers have already been shifted,” Gujarat Relief Commissioner Harshad Patel told reporters in Gandhinagar on Tuesday.

Patel said rescue teams have been given PPE kits in view of the coronavirus pandemic and they have also been directed to take precautionary measures like maintaining social distancing and providing masks to evacuees at rescue shelters.

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday indicated that the cyclonic storm might not make a landfall on the Gujarat coast.

“However, it will bring gusty winds coupled with heavy rainfall in the coastal belt,” state MeT centre director Jayanta Sarkar said.

Boats are anchored at a dock due to a red alert for Cyclone Nisarga, in Ratnagiri district, Tuesday, June 2, 2020. Photo: PTI

Politics over preparedness

Maharashtra BJP MLA Ashish Shelar took to Twitter to say he was “shocked” to note the BMC’s disaster management cell for cyclone Nisarga will start functioning on Tuesday.

Shelar asked when Mumbai’s disaster management plan will be activated.

Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar trashed Shelar’s charges, saying minute-to-minute information is being received by the BMC’s disaster management cell and the civic body’s personnel are on their toes.

Pednekar said Shelar is not an astrologer and cannot predict that the BMC has failed even before the examination is held.

The disaster management cell is receiving information regarding the cyclone every minute, Pednekar told a Marathi news channel.

Maharashtra Govt to Send Palghar SP on Compulsory Leave

Home minister Anil Deshmukh termed the lynching of three persons, two of them seers, last month as a “blot on humanity”.

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has decided to send Palghar Superintendent of Police (SP) Gaurav Singh on compulsory leave, home minister Anil Deshmukh said on Thursday and termed the lynching of three persons, two of them seers, last month as a “blot on humanity”.

Earlier in the day, Deshmukh visited Gadchinchle village in adjoining Palghar district, where a mob killed two seers and their car driver on April 16 amid rumours about “movement” of “child lifters and thieves” in the area.

During this visit, which came 21 days after the brutal mob attack, he held discussions with local public representatives.

The minister said the incident is a blot on humanity.

“I met public representatives there, the MLA, MP, gram panchayat members and others. After that, the state government has decided that Palghar SP Gaurav Singh will be sent on compulsory leave.

“The charge will be given to additional SP,” Deshmukh said in a video message.

The police have arrested 115 persons for the mob attack, which is being probed by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the Maharashtra Police.

Deshmukh said instructions have been given to take strict action against those involved in the mob attack.

Also read: How the Palghar Lynching Was Relentlessly Communalised on Social Media

“Visited the spot where the mob killed the three men, held discussions with local people. The probe of the incident has been handed over to the CID.

“Instructions have been given to take strict action against those involved in the killings,” Deshmukh told reporters in Palghar, according to an official statement.

During the visit, lady sarpanch of the village, Chitra Chowdhary of the BJP, told the minister that the mob had planned to burn the trio alive.

She said members of the mob were trying to find out kerosene to set their vehicle on fire so that they perish in it.

The minister told the media that the police were aware of rumours doing the round in Gadchinchle and nearby villages some two weeks prior to the lynching incident about “movement” of “child lifters and thieves”.

To Counter Communalisation, Maharashtra Govt Releases Names of Accused in Palghar Lynching

The state home minister accused the opposition of giving a communal colour to the lynching of three men.

New Delhi: Maharashtra’s home minister Anil Deshmukh released the names of 101 accused in the Palghar district to show that none of them were Muslims. He accused the opposition of giving a communal colour to the lynching of three men.

On April 16 evening, three persons travelling in a car from Kandivili in western Mumbai to Silvassa to attend a funeral were attacked by a mob of 70-80 persons in Palghar.

The victims, 70-year-old Kalpvrush Giri, 35-year-old Sushil Giri and driver Nilesh Telgade, were travelling to attend a funeral and were using smaller lanes passing through a village since many exit points on the main roads had been sealed. The two older men were wearing saffron clothes and belonged to an ashram in Kandivili. The mob attacked and killed the three men, despite the presence of policemen in the vicinity.

Also read: How the Palghar Lynching Was Relentlessly Communalised on Social Media

Three days later, a video of the incident emerged, which led to BJP leaders highlighting that the men were sadhus and BJP-affiliated social media handles began to assert that the mob was Muslim-dominated. Following the social media campaign, Deshmukh had pointed out that both the victims and the accused were from the same community.

On Wednesday, the state home minister released the names of all the arrested in the Palghar lynching incident on his social media accounts, adding, “especially sharing for those who were trying to make this a communal issue..”

In a live video address on his Facebook account, he stated that none of the accused were Muslims. “It is unfortunate that communal politics is being played following the incident,” he said.

As per a translation of his speech by PTI, Deshmukh said, “Some people are seeing ‘Mungerilal ke haseen sapne’ (a pipe dream)… it is not the time to play politics, but fight coronavirus collectively.”

He also stated that a special inspector general level officer in the CID is investigating the matter.

How the Palghar Lynching Was Relentlessly Communalised on Social Media

Videos of the incident on social media were amplified with an insinuation that it was a communally-motivated crime committed by members of the Muslim community.

On April 16, three men were lynched by an armed mob near Gadchinchale village which comes under the Kasa Police jurisdiction in Maharashtra’s Palghar district. Three days later, videos of the incident on social media were amplified with an insinuation that it was a communally-motivated crime committed by members of the Muslim community.

One such video of the gruesome incident was tweeted by some individuals with the claim that the mob can be heard saying, “Maar Shoaib Maar”.

Film director Ashoke Pandit twice claimed that the accused involved in the incident is “Shoaib”.

Suresh Chavhanke, the editor-in-chief of Sudarshan News, also claimed that he is able to hear the word “Shoaib” in the video.

Delhi BJP’s Richa Pandey Mishra tweeted the video with the text, “Hit Shoaib Hit, Kill them”. Similar tweets by handle ‘Yana Mir‘ and ‘This Posable‘ has garnered close to 2,700 retweets combined. Facebook page Our India posted the same video with a similar communal narrative. It has been shared more than 2,200 times.

Also viral with a Christian angle

An image of the two deceased men was also shared on social media with a graphic that accuses “the goons of Christian missionaries” for the attack.

No “Shoaib” in the video

After listening to several videos of the same incident taken from different angles, Alt News found that the men are saying,  “Bass oye bass (Stop hey stop)”.  In the video posted below, the same can heard. Thus, the claim that one of the perpetrators involved in the incident was Shoaib is baseless.

No communal angle

Maharastra’s Home Minister took to Twitter and informed that the incident has no communal angle and that the accused and the victim were not from different faiths.

CM Uddhav Thackeray has also ruled out any communal angle in the incident and said that it had occurred as rumours about thieves roaming in the area were making the rounds.

The incident took place on the night of April 16 when three men were attacked by a mob of local tribals near Gadchinchale village. They were reportedly on their way from Mumbai’s Kandivili to Silvassa to attend a funeral when they were stopped by a vigilante group that was set up by locals to patrol during the night. The mob questioned these men who were travelling in a van. They pelted stones at them and later beat them up with sticks. The police have detained over 100 people and nine minors in connection with the lynching.

Alt News reached out to PRO of Palghar police who reiterated that there is no communal angle to the incident. We were informed that both the accused and victim are from the same faith. The accused belong to the tribal community. The PRO said, “There was a rumour circulating in the area and the police had also issued a message regarding it.” There were reportedly rumours about migrants robbing the tribals village in Palghar district.

Also read: Three Men Lynched in Maharashtra, Two from Nomadic Tribe, BJP Leaders Push Communal Angle

Palghar SP Gaurav Singh informed The Indian Express that the investigation into the incident has so far focused on identifying the sources of the rumours spread in the tribal village.

Moreover, according to the 2011 census data of the Gadchinchale village of the Dahanu Taluka, it has over 248 households and of which majority of them belong to the scheduled tribe.

Days before the incident, four police personnel were left injured in an incident where the SUV of a skin specialist Dr Vishwas Walwi of Thane was destroyed at Saarni village by a mob. “At least 250 people had attacked them when Dr Walwi was returning home after distributing food grains and conducting a small door-to-door thermal screening of tribals,” said a report Hindustan Times published on April 17, 2020.

Prominent social media users like Suresh Chavhanke and Ashoke Pandit attempted to give the incident a communal colour by claiming that the men involved in the lynching were members of the Muslim community. The accused and victims both hail from the same religion. There is no communal angle to the incident.

This article was first published on Alt News. Read the original here. 

Three Men Lynched in Maharashtra, BJP Leaders Push Communal Angle

The Maharashtra home minister has pointed out that the attackers and attacked in Palghar did not belong to different religions and that the police would act against those using the incident to spread religious hatred.

Mumbai: Three days after the mob lynching of three men in Palghar, Maharashtra, the emergence of video footage of the brutal attack has given the incident a political colour with Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and Hindutva activists on social media using the fact that the victims were Hindu to allege the killings were part of “appeasement politics”.

Late evening on April 16, three persons travelling in a car were attacked by a group of men in Palghar and killed. The Palghar police have claimed that the three persons killed were travelling from Kandivili in western Mumbai to Silvassa and had passed through a village route, where they were stopped and attacked by over 70-80 persons.

The accused, the police say, are all local adivasis from Dahanu taluka in Palghar district.  The Kasa police station investigating the incident has claimed that the victims were attacked after the local villagers mistook them for “thieves”.

Of the three deceased persons, two persons—70- year old Kalpvrush Giri and 35- year old Sushil Giri—initially believed to be members of the Gosavi Nomadic Tribe but subsequently reported to be from Uttar Pradesh – were affiliated to one ‘Shri Panch Dashnam  Juna Akhaara’ in Varanasi. The third person, identified as Nilesh Telgade, was the driver of the car. The trio were travelling from Kandivili to Silvassa to attend a funeral and had to change routes from the national highway to smaller, inner lanes passing by a village since the district exits have been sealed due to COVID- 19.

Palghar is the northernmost coastal district of Maharashtra and borders Gujarat and the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

Maharashtra district map. Credit: mapsofindia.com

The Palghar police have arrested 110 people in connection with the incident. Of these, 9 persons are juvenile. The adult accused have been remanded in police custody till April 30 and the juveniles have been sent to a children’ home, a representative from Palghar police station confirmed. Most were taken into custody on April 17, one day after the incident.

Most of those arrested belong to Gadchinchale village in Dahanu Taluka of Palghar district. According to the 2011 census, the village has around 248 households, all belonging to the Scheduled Tribes. The literacy rate of the village is only around 30% and most of them are marginal farmers or labourers working in industrial units nearby.

Initial media reports, based on the assessment of local police, indicated that one or more local tribals thought the three men travelling by car were “thieves”.

Video of incident surfaces

On Sunday, April 19, the incident suddenly took a political and even communal colour when video footage of the incident emerged and BJP leaders highlighted the fact that the men who were lynched were wearing saffron robes.

By evening, hashtags like #JusticeforHinduSadhus were trending on Twitter with over three lakh persons tweeting on the incident. Several BJP and right-wing leaders expressed their shock and dismay over the incident. Many Hindutva oriented social media handles sought to insinuate a ‘Muslim’ angle, prompting Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh to tweet that the attackers and the attacked, in fact, did not belong to different religions.

“The police have been told to take firm action against those who, without reason, are trying to create a religious dispute”, he added.

Former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis condemned the attack and demanded a “high level committee” be set up immediately to investigate the incident.

On Sunday night, the Uddhav Thackeray government – a coalition comprising the Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party – said it would launch a high-level inquiry into the incident. Though the government has not said so, the evident dereliction of duty by the local police has been widely commented on. In the viral video, the policemen present do nothing to protect the defenceless men from the mob, which is armed with lathis.

Plight of nomadic tribals

Kalpavruksh Giri, the 70- year old victim, had worn a saffron gamcha around his shoulders and Twitter was quick to suggest he and the other sadhu had been attacked because they were Hindus.

Giri is a common name among Gosavis and based on an earlier lynching incident in which denotified tribals were killed, social activists and Gosavi community leaders claimed that two of the deceased belonged to the nomadic tribal community and were part of a religious sect affiliated with an akhaara or a religious group in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. “There are at least 16 subsects among the Gosavi community. Giris are one of them. Most of them are associated with the akharaas across different states,” sociologist Kalidas Shinde told The Wire.

Shinde, who also belongs to one of the sub-sects of the semi-nomadic Gosavi community, said that most persons among Gosavis wear saffron robes and lead a mobile life. “Not much is known about these men but it is usual to find people from the community leading a nomadic lifestyle. Public harassment is a common experience of most persons travelling from one village to another. They get looked at with suspicion,” Shinde said.

Bharatkumar Tambile, an official spokesperson of the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu NathPanthi Samaj Mahasangh, a right-wing organisation working among the nomadic and denotified tribal community in the state, said his organisation has already been on the ground trying to find out about the deceased. Tambile’s organisation was activated only after the incident took a communal angle and efforts were made to show that Hindu sadhus were attacked by the mob on the basis of religion.

Recently, in 2018, five persons were lynched in a tribal hamlet, Rainpada village in Sakri taluka of Maharashtra’s Dhule. The men, in that case too, were attacked following a rumour and the police said the locals had mistaken them to be child abductors.

The semi-nomadic Gosavi community has for long faced ostracisation, discrimination and violence. It is one of the 42 nomadic and denotified tribes of Maharashtra – the largest among all states. Some among the 16 subsects of Gosavis continue to wander in cities and villages of Maharashtra and other states.

Post lockdown tension

Palghar, which is a border district has been accommodating a large number of migrant workers at different labour camps set up across the district since the national lock down. The presence of so many “outsiders” had led to a tense atmosphere in the district and the police say attempts have been made to spread rumours here.

After the lynching incident, the Palghar police have issued several advisories. Several voice notes have also been sent out to people on WhatsApp. “We are trying to reach out to people in their local dialects and are trying to appeal to them that they should not indulge in any violent act. These are difficult times and spreading rumours at such times is the easiest,” an officer from Kasa police station said.

Note: In the light of news reports from Uttar Pradesh that identified the two sadhus as Brahmins from Uttar Pradesh, the headline and text of this story has been revised to correct the earlier claim made by Gosavi community activists that the two deceased sadhus belonged to their community of denotified tribals. Palghar police, which conducted the initial investigation were unable to provide The Wire with details of the lynching victims.