Conspiracy Mongering

After dilly-dallying for five months, on 6 June 2018 the Pune police made multiple arrests in Mumbai, Nagpur  and Delhi relating to the Bhima Koregaon case. The five accused—Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, and Rona Wilson, all human rights activists—were arrested for their association with the Elgar Parishad, which the police claim was responsible for inciting the violence at the bicentenary celebrations of Bhima Koregaon. The police also went on to claim that these “urban Maoists” were allegedly part of a “plot to kill” Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The timing of the arrests, the targets, and the discursive tropes invoked in this political move suggest that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is seeking to kill multiple birds with one stone.

It would appear that this high-voltage political drama has been timed to tide over one of the first sustained lows in the incumbent National Democratic Alliance government’s stint both in Maharashtra and at the centre. This pre-poll year started out on a sombre note for the ruling party with the violence at Bhima Koregaon triggering widespread Dalit protests and outrage across Maharashtra. Followed by nationwide protests against the Supreme Court judgment in March instituting procedural safeguards to check “the misuse” of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities [PoA]) Act, 2005, it seemed like Dalit alienation from the BJP was complete.