Raid on Elgar Parishad members: Politics of revenge, says Prakash Ambedkar

Prakash Ambedkar, president of Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh, said the BJP government was exacting revenge. (File Photo)

Dalit leaders and activists termed the raids on people connected with the Elgar Parishad and Kabir Kala Manch on Tuesday as “politics of revenge” and an attempt to defame those associated with the Dalit and Ambedkarite movement. Prakash Ambedkar, president of Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh, said the BJP government was exacting revenge.

“It’s politics of revenge. RSS was behind the ‘Maratha Morchas’… It was to divide communities on caste lines in Maharashtra such as Marathas versus OBCs, Dalits versus Adivasis. During the ‘Maratha Morchas’, senior leaders from the community were kept out and humiliated. But, the Elgar Parishad brought all these communities together keeping aside the earlier conflicts, which destroyed the RSS’s politics of dividing communities on caste lines,” said Ambedkar.

“Nobody has explained yet why people were attacked at Bhima Koregaon. It’s because we destroyed their politics of convenience… Despite our demands, Sambhaji Bhide hasn’t been arrested yet… Milind Ekbote was taken into custody but wasn’t interrogated. The inquiry is a farce.”