Bhima-Koregaon a symbol of resistance, Govt’s NIA stooges can never erase, says Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader and Member of Parliament from Wayanad Rahul Gandhi on Saturday, January 25 termed Bhima Koregaon a symbol of resistance that "government's stooges" can never erase.

Rahul Gandhi added that whosoever tries to oppose the government is branded "Urban Naxal" by them. The tweet from the Congress leader came a day after the Modi government decided to transfer the Bhima Koregaon case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

"Anyone who opposes the MOSH (Modi-Shah) agenda of hate is an “Urban Naxal”. Bhima-Koregaon is a symbol of resistance that the Government’s NIA stooges can never erase," he tweeted.

The Bhima Koregaon case was being probed by the Pune police and Modi govt decision to hand over the probe to the NIA on Friday came just a day after the police briefed Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and state home minister Anil Deshmukh on the status of the investigation.

Earlier on Thursday, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar had written to Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray asking him to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the police action in the case.

In 2018, Maharashtra police had arrested nine activists and lawyers for allegedly inciting people at a meeting of the Elgar Parishad in Pune on December 31, 2017. Cops had claimed the activists and lawyers incited people and this led to caste violence in Bhima Koregaon on the very the next day.

Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawale, Sudha Bhardwaj, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira are the nine people arrested in the case.

It was in the Elgar Parishad case that Pune Police used the ‘Urban Naxal’ term. Police said they had found a letter from one of the arrested accused, Delhi-based activist Rona Wilson, which allegedly pointed to a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.