Caste, communal sentiments flare up amid poll season in Maharashtra

MUMBAI: Maharashtra seems to be limping from one crisis to another.

In April, the state was stunned when a 17-year-old Dalit was found hanging from a tree. He was allegedly killed by an upper caste youth, who was angry at the boy being in a relationship with his sister.

Over the past one week, parts of the state have been tense after some pictures uploaded on a social networking site projected the 17 century Maratha warrior Shivaji and Shiv Sena leader late Bal Thackeray in a bad light.

This seems to have triggered mob violence in Pune, which led to the killing of a 24-yearold software professional.

On Sunday, sporadic incidents of violence were reported from Solapur, Sangli Buldhana and Pune after a post on a social networking site carried a morphed picture of Babasaheb Ambedkar.

While the ruling Congress and Nationalist Congress Party blame rightwing activists—emboldened by the BJP’s victory in general elections—for the spate of violence, others blame the government.

“The unrest is because of a general collapse of law and order,” said Aruna Pendse, a professor of political science in Mumbai University. “Governance is lacking…if you punish strongly those who indulge in violence, then you won’t have to see so many incidents of violence taking place.”

Former journalist and scholar Arun Tikekar supports Pendse’s view. “There has to be some severe punishment involved for those who indulge in violence,” he said. “However, when people see that there is no response from the police machinery, they become emboldened to indulge in more acts of violence.”

Journalist Kumar Ketkar said the Dalits in the state have become a target of upper caste groups ever since it was proposed to rename the Marathwada University after Ambedkar. Ketkar said the Mandal Commission has only lead to more anger against the Dalits.

He added that lack of governance was the reason for the increasing deterioration of law and order in the state.

Interestingly, the rising incidents of violence have also worried BJP, which is being blamed by the Congress-NCP for instigating violence in the run up to legislative elections in Maharashtra.