Is Devendra Fadnavis planning another crackdown like Bhima-Koregaon?

One of the first acts of Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has been to introduce a special legislation to deal with ‘urban Naxals’ in the state. While introducing the legislation, Fadnavis took the name of Bharat Jodo Abhiyan, an umbrella organisation of NGOs and civil society groups, which had extended support to the Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi and which actively campaigned for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Maharashtra Opposition alliance which lost the assembly election in the state last month.

The Maharashtra chief minister had during his election campaign claimed that of the 180 organisations which are part of the BJA, 40 comprised 'urban Naxals'. In the state assembly, he claimed that the list of anarchist groups had been prepared by the Congress government in 2011-12.

Expressing shock and dismay over the chief minister’s statement, BJA convenor Yogendra Yadav dared Fadnavis to disclose the names of organisations which he had described as anarchist. The chief minister should also reveal the basis of his conclusion that these organisations have been violent. BJA consists of Gandhian and socialist grassroot organisations, Yadav pointed out, and challenged the Maharashtra chief minister to make the list of anarchist groups public.

Fadnavis should also reveal details of the 'secret meeting' held in Kathmandu on 15 November five days before the Maharashtra assembly election, which had allegedly passed a resolution to disrupt the election and target EVMs. Since the chief minister seems to know everything and apparently has the details, he should make the resolution public and also disclose who called the meeting and who were the participants.

Is Maharashtra today such a disturbed state that the state government is forced to bring in special legislation to deal with urban naxals, Yadav asked sarcastically. While Maoist activities have been reported from states like Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha, Maharashtra has rarely witnessed Naxalite violence, he pointed out. So what is the chief minister up to, he wondered.

Recalling the Bhima-Koregaon case lodged in 2018 when Fadnavis was once again chief minister, Yadav suspected that Maharashtra Police could be planning a similar crackdown on political rivals and activists. The conspiracy alleged in the Bhima-Koregaon case is yet to be proved but the police rounded up a number of activists like Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Anand Teltumbde, Rona Wilson, and the late Stan Swamy, and accused them of being 'urban Naxals'.

Many of them have spent several years in detention, while Swamy passed away as an undertrial before the trial could start. It has been alleged that evidence was remotely planted in their computers, a charge which was corroborated by forensic labs in the US and Canada but on which Indian courts are yet to rule.

The BJP government in the state, Yadav suspects, is planning a similar operation against grassroot organisations in the state. Maharashtra has always had very strong people’s movements and grassroot organisations, and Fadnavis appears to be planning something even more sinister than Bhima-Koregaon to silence political rivals and opponents, he apprehends. There are a number of laws to deal with violent, anarchist and undesirable organisations. Why would Fadnavis need yet another law to deal with dissenters, he asked an interviewer this week.