Growing intolerance, a worrisome trend

It was Pune last year, it is Kolhapur this week. People who propagate rational ideas and speak and work for the poor are being targeted in Maharashtra that has at once been the crucible of both nationalist and rationalist schools of thought and action.

The murder of Narendra Dabholkar in Pune and the shooting of Communist Party of India veteran Govind Pansere and his wife Uma point to the intolerant forces resorting to violence to physically prevent any worthwhile discourse. Both Dabholkar and the Pansere couple, that was a Dabholkar supporter, were shot at while on morning walk by motorcycle-borne persons, indicating planned moves to eliminate them. It is still not clear whether the Panseres would survive the murderous attack that has generated widespread protests. That Govind received two bullets and bled profusely before being treated makes his survival uncertain.

The common thread between the two attacks is the pro-forma condemnation by right wing bodies, followed by veiled justification, even glorification of the attackers and criticism of those attacked. Reports indicate that investigations are slow and shoddy, with one eye on likely retribution from the right wing activists. One cannot absolve the police who treat the incident as a ‘whodunit’ common crime, but officials do take the cue from their political masters who display timidity each time the ideas they claim to profess come under violent attack. Loud condemnations are followed by calculated silence, both to score little political brownies, no more.

Former Union Minister and senior Maharashtra leader Sharad Pawar has rightly called the attack on Panseres “a worrisome trend.” Perhaps, he can look back at the Dabholkar murder case when he was a ruling coalition partner and the state’s home minister belonged to his Congress Nationalist Party.

The then Chavan government quickly issued an ordinance on the legislation meant to curb superstition in society that Dabholkar had been campaigning, the reason that led to his murder. But sadly, Dabholkar case remains unsolved and the culprits unpunished. The “worrisome trend” that Pawar has pointed to, may be prominent in Maharashtra – Pune witnessed a Muslim youth being killed last year on way back from his prayer. But it is certainly not exclusive to the state. The run-up to the just-concluded assembly polls in Delhi witnessed four cases of Christian shrines being vandalized and a fifth one took place even as the new government took office. This is rare in Delhi. But the Delhi Police treat them as cases of burglary. A church is hardly a place for that.

The police also do not identify the attackers, assuming they are caught, for their political affiliations. Again, it smacks of the law keeper taking the cue from the lawmaker. Sadly, the “worrisome trend” is likely to persist, engulfing more and more places, given the current political ethos.

By: Mahendra Ved