Mumbai gang rape, Narendra Dabholkar's murder trigger political & linguistic divide

MUMBAI: In an irony of sorts, a gang rape in Mumbai and a murder of a rationalist campaigner in Pune has led to polarisation in the state along political and linguistic lines, with parties using the occasion to flex their muscles and gain mileage ahead of general elections next year.

With the opposition claiming the incidents as the biggest indications of law and order failure in Maharashtra, the Prithviraj Chavan government is clearly in a fire-fighting mode. Moreover, the situation has caused polarisation of two types in the state. Firstly, there are clashes between leftists and right-wing groups over the Pune murder. Secondly, the Mumbai rape has generated a debate on whether the city has become unsafe because of migrants, causing a divide between locals and them.

"The polarisation is perceived to be happening because of the recent events but it may be part of a planned strategy of one side or the other. The question is whether this tempo will sustain till elections...The parties may be using this to whip up emotions. If the opposition is harping on deterioration of law and order, they are not wrong," said Uttara Sahastrabuddhe, political analyst & professor of political science at Mumbai University.


Just a couple of days after Dr Narendra Dabholkar's murder in Pune, a group of students from a leftist group organised a film screening at the National Film Archives of India. A group of activists from Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) - a right wing group - entered the auditorium and objected to the contents. Heated arguments between the two groups led to a violent clash.

"The extreme right-wing groups think this is the right time to regroup and strike to push their agenda. The liberal voices in parties such as the BJP are being sidelined. There is no scope for moderates to voice their opinion... The leftist groups feel they must retaliate. This is bound to create chaos," said political analyst and former journalist Pratap Asbe.

After the first arrest in the Mumbai rape case, the Shiv Sena took out a rally on the NM Joshi Marg to highlight the fact that the accused was an "outsider". Though Mumbai Commissioner Satyapal Singh clarified that most of the accused are residents of Mumbai, the opposition kept harping on the impression that most of them were migrants, giving rise to a debate about whether the city has become unsafe for women because of migrants. MNS chief Raj Thackeray blamed "outsiders" for the alleged deterioration in law & order situation in Mumbai even before the names of all the accused were released by the police.