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Sambhaji Brigade’s Pravindada Gaikwad refuses govt security after his face blackened, BJP promises action against attacker

Activists of the Shivdharma Foundation smeared black oil on the face of Sambhaji Brigade's Pravin Gaikwad, a Maratha leader, in an attack allegedly led by BJP worker Deepak Kate in Solapur on Sunday.

Pravindada Gaikwad (in picture), chief of Sambhaji Brigade's political wing, said Deepak Kate had phoned him up twice before the attack. (File Photo)

The Maharashtra BJP on Tuesday said it would soon take action against Deepak Kate, the party worker who allegedly attacked Pravindada Gaikwad, chief of Sambhaji Brigade’s political wing, even as he asserted that the ruling party had orchestrated the attack, and refused any government security.

”We have strongly condemned the attack on Gaikwad. There is no room for such things in our party. The process to take action in the matter is underway. Soon the party will announce the decision,” BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said. ”There is no question of shielding any accused, whoever he may be.”

Activists of the Shivdharma Foundation smeared black oil on the Maratha leader’s face in an attack allegedly led by Kate in Solapur on Sunday.

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Speaking to The Indian Express, Gaikwad said, ”The government has actually not offered any security to me. I don’t think they will provide me security. But I have already conveyed the message that I don’t want any security cover. The bahujan samaj is there to protect me from the wrongdoers.”

Gaikwad said, ”Why would the government want to provide me security? Its own people are attacking me and want to kill me. And now the government is indulging in the drama of providing me security. I can live without security. My people will decide whether I should live or die. I have devoted my life to the welfare of the people. They will take care of me.”

Gaikwad said Deepak Kate had phoned him up twice before the attack. ”He said we should change the name of our organisation from Sambhaji Brigade to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Brigade. I told him that there was technical difficulty in it as the name has already been registered by another organisation. Also, it does not mean that we have any disrespect for Sambhaji Maharaj. Sambhaji Brigade has produced a serial on the warrior king and has also published several books on him,”’ he said.

Gaikwad said the real reason behind the attack was something else and referred to an incident where the RSS headquarters in Nagpur was gheraoed by two lakh people belonging to the All India Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation (BAMCEF), established by Kanshi Ram and others.

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”The Sangh Parivar had then planned to finish off BAMCEF. Similarly, they want to do away with organisations like Sambhaji Brigade and Maratha Seva Sangh. All these organisations share similar ideologies. The Sangh Parivar does not want any of our ideologies to thrive,” he said.

The BJP, however, denied that the Sangh Parivar had made any such plan. ”There is no truth in the allegations being made,” said Upadhaye.

Gaikwad said, ”In a video of BJP leader Chandrashekhar Bawankule, which has gone viral, he is heard saying that Kate is not guilty. Actually, there are 10 serious criminal cases against Kate. He also has a murder charge against him. Yet, Bawankule is heard saying that Kate should not worry and that he and the chief minister are behind him. His speeches on social media are proof of how he is supporting the attacker… All these things highlight the attack on me was orchestrated by the BJP.”

Gaikwad also denied he had made any comment against Swami Samarth. ”My own daughter-in-law is a follower of Swami Samarth…I have never said anything against Swami Samarth,” he said.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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