As we are approaching the ending of the year 2017, the politics of ‘Bhima Koregaon Battle‘ is heating up. As 2017 marks the 200th anniversary of the battle, ultra-leftist forces are leading the campaign for the programme organized to commemorate the victory.
Though 2017 is marking the 200th anniversary of the battle people are not much aware of the causes and the details of it. Hence we Jansatyagrah.in have brought with the details of the event.
History
The Battle of Koregaon took place on January 1, 1818, at the bank of the river Bhima in Koregaon, near Pune. A small force of 500 men of the 2nd Battalion 1st Regiment of the Bombay Native Light Infantry, 250 men of Poona Horse and 25 men of Madras Ordnance under the command of Capt. F. F. Staunton fought for twelve hours against a large force of 20,000 horse and 8,000 infantry of Maratha Leader.
(*Bombay native infantry battalion was started by British commander Robert Clive to safeguard their warehouses. Which consisted men of all castes but mostly Mahars. Because Mahars were banned from joining Maratha forces by Peshwa.)
Casualties are as follow,
50 men (22 Mahars, 16 Marathas, 8 Rajputs, 2 Muslims, 2 Christians) from the Bombay Native Light Infantry.
47 men from Poona Horse
12 Men from Madras Ordnance
Around 500 to 600 Maratha force
*Figures as recorded by British Officers and Historians
Both sides suffered severe losses, No one achieved a decisive victory.
To commemorate the bravery of the troops’ British officers set up a monument (obelisk) in the village. The pillar inscriptions feature the names of the martyrs from the Koregoan battle.
Important Points of Note-
1. This battle was British Forces led by Capt. F. F. Staunton vs. Maratha Forces of Peshwa led by Bapu Gokhale.
2. Both sides suffered severe losses, No one achieved a decisive victory.
3. Men of all castes and sects fought in the battle, so this wasn’t a battle of caste eradication as it is portrayed.
4. The men fighting from either side fought for remunerations it wasn’t self-driven.
5. The event is portrayed as the precursor to the eradication of medieval slavery which is untrue. Britishers fought to win over Pune and not to untie untouchables from the hierarchy.
6. Britishers included untouchables only because they needed Indian Army to establish power. After the establishment of the Power, they banned entry of the Mahars in the English army.
7. Today the event is used to spread Brahmin hatred amongst Ambedkarites
8. British officers appointed a caretaker to stele, who belonged to Maratha community. His name was Malwadkar, his successors are taking care of the stele.
The revival of the history Babasaheb Ambedkar With his followers at Bhima Koregaon
The significance of the obelisk at the battlefield faded over the time, as it was not of much importance for Britishers. Later when most of the Indian Kingdoms surrendered to British forces and had an adequate number of upper caste forces, they banned Mahars in British forces.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar wrote a 7-page letter to British officials condemning their ill decision. Babasaheb did mention the Koregaon Battle wherein Mahars and British fought hand in hand. He also visited the obelisk in the Koregaon on 1st Jan 1927.
Ambedkar was not the only one who were asking Britishers to lift the ban on the entry of untouchables in the army. MG Ranade and Gopalbaba Walangkar also wrote to Britishers condemning the decision.
Though Ambedkar only visited the stele once it is presented as if he frequented.
Recent Past
After Ambedkar visited the stele in 1927, it was not until some leftist organizations claiming to be Ambedkarites popularised its history as Dalit vs Brahmin conflict. They distributed hate messages, pamphlets, flyers, booklets among people. Emotional Ambedkarite people got deceived by the glorious made-up history. And they started to attract a crowd by the name of Ambedkar to push there hidden agendas.
Poster of the event organized to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the event
Editorial Board of the Book has the name of Sudhir Dhavale,*
Sudhir Dhavale and his mates Paying homage to Maoist Sridhar SrinivasanBanned CPI(Maoist) letter for Sridhar Srinivasan
*Sudhir Dhavale served 40 months of imprisonment for having alleged connections with Naxals, later he was acquitted of all charges due to lack of evidence against him by the court.
*Vira Sathidar Claims to be the activist fighting for Dalit Rights. He took the press conference regarding the apprehension of a Maoist activist but failed to even condemn the killings of A Dalit Ramesh Ramteke.
Naxals have killed many tribals and DalitsUmar Khalid, one of the speakers at the event, his Facebook post celebrating Burhan Wani
Who invited Umar Khalid, who is facing charges of sedition? Is it not disgrace to Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Name? The report also alleges him having Naxal connection Reference
Vira Sathidart and Umar Khalid with Hem Mishra, who is in jail for having a Naxal connection
As we can see how this event is hijacked by ultra-leftist forces and misusing Ambedkarites to spread hatred in society.
We agree that we had inglorious episodes of Dalit atrocities and untouchability. Now we came decades ahead of the untouchability and Cases of Dalit atrocities have diminished. This was possible due to equality and freedom provided by our constitution. But these vermins are working hard to keep our old wounds bleeding.
The article was originally published on Jansatyagrah.in
With the noble thought, to spread education and knowledge, to excel in science research our government incepted several universities. Granted them with huge packages. Provided them with the executive and financial autonomy. But as we can see very few universities have contributed towards the science research. Rest universities are always surrounded by the allegations of wrongdoings.
In last few years the universities in Maharashtra are only in the news for the frauds, rivalries of student organizations, extortion of students, paper checking frauds and so on. No one from the government has time for its regulations. Maharashtra Education Minister ‘Vinod Tawade’ himself facing allegations of holding a fake degree.
University Grant Commission has designed ruled and regulations for the universities. But have no any working body to keep a check whether these rules are being followed by universities or not. It has given an open ground for the university officials to function arbitrarily. So these university employees have devised a new way to get their salaries increased.
Usually, government employees get salary hikes with promotion, regular increments or Pay commissions. But university employees have figured out a new way to get their salaries doubled just by changing their designations. Without fulfilling any documents or doing extra work.
What is the fraud?
This started in the year 2010 when Congress-NCP government was in power. The office bearers of ‘Maharashtra University Employee Association’ joined forces with the corrupt officials in the ‘Higher and Technical Education Department’.
Then Registrar of ‘Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University’ wrote a letter to Secretary of ‘Higher and Technical Education Department’ stating
‘There are some discrepancies in the pay scales of the university employees. Hence their designations should be changed.”
(Letter no:- ‘संगाबाअवि/१/१०२/२-१३१३/२०११’ )
Role of Higher and Technical Education Department
‘Vikas Kadam’ Asst Section officer of the department with the reference to the received letter created a proposal of a GR stating,
” Minimal manpower at university is affecting its functionality. If we change the designations of the existing employees, then we can get the extra work done by them.”
And sent it to the approval of the department secretary. Then departmental secretary sent it back remarking,
“does it require the approval of the finance department?”
On which he indeterminately wrote,
“We are not increasing the no of employees we are only changing their designations. As well as the government doesn’t have an extra burden on the finances. Hence according to m, it won’t require the approval of the finance department.”
And sent it back to the chief secretary and this proposal was validated by him.
Vikas Kadam then sent several GR’s to the universities. Which mentioned about a letter of consent from the finance department.
While replying to the RTI, Finance department clarified that they had not issued any such letter.
How did it affect?
The above payscale hike is applied retrospectively since 1996/2006 hence the university employees have received arrears in lacs.
In reply to our RTI, Pune University gave us the details of the arrears received and the hike in the salary. The numbers are shocking.
We are providing you with few examples
Name of employee
Salary increased by
Arrears
Kamalakar Prabhu Gaikwad
34000
2574020
Bhivsen Bhonjiba Thore
36000
2713000
Urmila Dilip Kulkarni Kale
53202
3800000
We have only taken the example of the three employees here; the total list exceeds over 600 names for one university. The same has happened in other state universities as well.
Vinod Tawade, Minister, (Higher and Technical Education) Photo: Indian Express
How exactly the racket worked?
Chairman of the Maharashtra university employee association, Asst Section officer of Higher and Technical Education Department, Registrar of Sant Gadgebaba Amravati University are the ones who decorated the scam.
Huge bribes were taken by the office bearers of Maharashtra university employee association. The amount is in crores. Shares of the same were shared with the officials of the Higher and technical education department.
Initially, GR’s were drawn to change the designations of only who paid the bribe. Hence they gained employees trust and attracted towards the scam.
All GR’s were issued between 2010 to 2013. These all were there on the official portal of Higher and Technical Education Department but were removed later.
Important Notes:-
1. Any type of Salary Increment is subject to consent from the finance department. This was completely overlooked.
2. All GR’s were issued between 2010 to 2013, but it was pretended as they were issued in 2009.
3. Educational Qualifications were overlooked, the bribe was only criteria for the designation change.
4. Out off 172 designations 102 were changed. Means out of 1235 employees 681 employees are the beneficiary of the scam.
5. As mentioned in the proposal no extra works were assigned to the employees.
6. Asst Section Officer Vikas Kadam had bluffed that there won’t be an extra burden on the government funds.
We wrote several letters and emails to Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis & Education Minister Vinod Tawade about the said scam but they refused to take any action against the corrupt officials.
In the same state employees of ‘Maharashtra State Road Transport Commision’ are working 8-10 hours for salaries as low as 5000 Rupees and on other hand university employees are looting lacs from the government funds
”We are having a dialogue with the government about the issue. We will take actions accordingly.”
–Dr. Nitin Karmalkar
VC, Savitribai Phule Pune University
Nitin Karmalkar, VC, (Savitribai Phule Pune University) Photo: corporatecitizen.in
On 30th of November 2017, National Crime Records Bureau published annual reports of 2016 crime data. NCRB data shows growth in crime index of Maharashtra state as compared to 2015. Maharashtra has secured 5th rank in the total number of cases filed under various sections of IPC. And in terms of cases filed per lakh of population state ranked eighth among 29 states.
Near about 95000 people from the state are registered as missing. Out of which 50,000 are women and 45000 are men. Police managed to trace down 40,000 people.
State-ranked third highest in rape cases with a total of 4189 cases just behind Madhya Pradesh (4,882) and Uttar Pradesh (4,816).
The state has a decent stake in the crimes reported with Railway Protection force. 20.9% to be precise. Same goes for kidnapping, human trafficking, murders etc.
For any Government, it is challenging to keep crimes under control. To take necessary actions, appoint capable officers, upgrade police force with the latest technology and lot more.
But in Maharashtra, we don’t even have a full-time home minister. Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis kept home ministry with himself. Preventing emergence of a parallel powerhouse. He may be politically correct but People are suffering from his naiveness.
Since Fadanvis took over home ministry, there is no one to control the Police department. It has inversely affected the efficiency of the force. The autocratic behavior of the higher officials is increasing as they are aware that CM has no time to curb their intentions.
The crime rates in the state have been consistently increasing as well as crimes committed by the police officials has also seen a rise in past few months.
Aniket Kothale: Photo: indianexpress.com
The custodial death of Aniket Kothale shocked the state. Aniket Kothale a robbery suspect was remanded two days Police custody, where he was tortured and murdered brutally. And to cover up the killing police officials burned his corpse. And framing a fake story stating he broke out of prison. Five Police officials are held for the dead including a police sub-inspector Yuvraj Kamate.
Narendra Hadiyal; Photo: lokmat.news18.com
Dust of Sangli custodial killing was yet to settle down. Another custodial killing was committed by Latur Police. Narendra Hadiyal, a trader from Mehasana, Gujarat was under custody for allegations of Hawala. His brother Himmat Singh accused police officials of demanding the bribe. He was managing money as the amount was big, in meantime police hacked him to death. Later covering up the story police stated he died of drinking toilet cleaning acid. Police are still trying to find how he got his hands on acid.
Ashwini Bidre was missing for a year and a half. Later found out that she was killed by her fellow police officer and her love interest. The case of missing API Ashwini Bidre tells you how even police officials are not safe within the state.
Police officers are not only committing atrocities but also failing to do any good in investigating other crimes.
Be it the example of Narendra Dabholkar or Govind Pansare. Their killers are still wondering freely. To cover up their incompetence police officers made an offer with a man to take up the blame for Dabholkar’s murder in return of 25 lakh.
Nitin Aage, a Dalit boy from Kharda village in Ahemadnagar district of western Maharashtra, was hacked to death by the people from upper caste. Investigating officers did not put up the case properly in the court and all the accused were acquitted of all charges. The question, ‘Who killed Nitin Aage? Was kept unanswered. The same went for ‘Khairlanji Massacre’ the brutal killing of Dalit Family which shocked the world.
The department is facing scarcity of manpower. This is adversely affecting the functionality of the force. 900 Sub Inspectors were recruited from the police service itself by conducting the departmental exam. All of the 900 candidates are still waiting for the joining letter for more than a year. They even lack rapid action necessities, proper training, arms, and ammunition, etc. The list goes on.
There are several such cases where we can see CM Devendra Fadanvis is failing as Home Minister and Maharashtra needs a dedicated home minister.
The article was originally published on TheArticle.in
