The controversial move to book Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) leader and sitting MP Raju Shetty and 83 others for the “murder” of a Head Constable in Kolhapur district has sparked a major controversy in Maharashtra, with the Opposition Shiv Sena, BJP and RPI(A) alliance dubbing the police action as an act of “political vendetta” and threatening to take to streets on the issue.
A day after the Shiroli police named Shetty and 83 others for the “murder” of police head constable Mohan Dinkar Pawar who succumbed to injuries that she sustained during a sugarcane growers’ agitation in November, 2012, Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde and RPI(A) president Ramdas Athavale warned the Democratic Front (DF) Government against practising “politics of vendetta” against the Sanghatana’s sitting MP and his party activists.
The three “Maha-Yuti” (grand alliance) leaders dubbed the move to book Shetty, a sitting MP from Hatkanangle constituency, for the “murder” of Pawar as a well-planned conspiracy to arrest him. “Shetty is being victimised by the NCP, since his party — the SSS — is a constituent of the Maha-Yuti. The act smacks of political vindictiveness,” they said.
Pawar was among the four police personnel who had sustained severe injuries in a violent clash that broke out on the Pune-Bengaluru national highway between the police and some protesters, when the Sanghatana resorted to an agitation for remunerative support price sugarcane growers in Kolhapur district on November 12, 2012. He succumbed to injuries, while undergoing treatment on Sunday night.
Earlier, the Shiroli police had registered an “attempt to murder” case against Shetty, Sanghatana’s Kokhapur district unit president Bhagwan Kate, Public Works committee chairman of local Zilla Parishad Savarkar Madnaik and others for the assault on Pawar and other policemen. However, after the death of the injured head constable, the police have converted the case into “a case of murder”.
In their joint statement, the three “Maha-Yuti” leaders Uddhav, Munde and Athavale threatened to launch a massive agitation in the event of the police arresting Shetty and his party workers in connection with the death of head constable Pawar. “Maharashtra does not have a tradition of politics of vendetta. Still, the ruling Nationalist Congress Party (which holds the State Home portfolio) is indulging in politics of vindictiveness to sub-serve its narrow political interests,” the grand alliance leaders said.
Charging the ruling NCP with practising “double standards” when it came to dealing with tainted politicians, the Sena-BJP-RPI(A) alliance leaders said: “There are as many as 16 tainted Ministers in the DF Government against whom the courts have ordered institution of criminal cases... One NCP MlA from Beed district, who has been booked for a criminal offence, is moving around freely despite the Bombay High Court having rejected his anticipatory bail. But, the same NCP is now out to harass Opposition’s political leaders and activists undertaking agitations for the farmers’ cause,” they said.
The move to book Shetty for the “murder” of a police head constable is bound to result in a confrontation between the DF Government and the Opposition Maha-Yuti - Shiv Sena, BJP, RPI (A), Raju Shetty-led SSS and the Mahadeo Jankar-led Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, in the run-up to the lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra. Given the aggression displayed by the “Maha-Yuti” over the “murder” case registered against Shetty, the DF government will definitely consider the political fallout, before deciding to arrest the sitting SSS MP.