'Fearing defeat, BJP is trying to suppress voices by implicating innocent people': Prakash Ambedkar

Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh president Prakash Ambedkar is on a warpath against the BJP government. He has accused the saffron party of implicating innocent people for the violence that took place at Bhima Koregaon in January this year as well as the alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The BJP leadership has realised that it is in for a miserable defeat in the coming general elections. And in a frantic effort to salvage the situation, the government is trying to curb the voices rising against it. The police action, in the name of the violence after the Elgar Parishad at Pune in January this year, is a perfect example. The government plans to provoke nationwide violence by implicating innocent people in false police cases so that an emergency-like crisis arises,” Ambedkar alleged.

He claimed that the Elgar Parishad organised at Pune on 31 December last year was against the divisive Brahminical system given by Manu. The Parishad evoked an unprecedented response from the Dalit community. Baffled by the huge response, the central agencies, which are under control of the Brahminical system, cracked down on the organisers of Elgar Parishad by linking it to the violence that broke on 1 January this year.

“The police has no concrete evidence to prove their theory. They have a few letters and e-mails in the name of so-called clinching evidence, which will not stand in the court or law since they have interpreted the information as per their wish,” he said.

Ambedkar claimed that the police have not established that the e-mails in question were sent by the accused and the authenticity of the letter is also under question. “There is no evidence to establish that the documents were recovered from the computers of the accused. Moreover, the police have also failed to provide evidence such as the IP address (of the computer from which the mail was sent) as well as the date and time,” he said.

He also said that many retired police officials have dismissed the “evidence” provided by the Pune police.

“My name appears in one of the letters and there is mention of one Comrade Prakash in the other letter, which also has a discussion on the alleged plan to assassinate PM Modi. Both these letters are very crucial. It is a huge mystery, how they made their way to the media. Incidentally, DGP Satish Mathur claimed that the letters were not issued by police but leaked by Maoists and Joint CP, Pune Ravindra Kadam clarified that Comrade Prakash was not me,” Ambedkar said.

He also claimed that Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote planned the riots at Bhima Koregaon following the Elgar Parishad, but instead of punishing them, the government was acting against the organisers of the Elgar Parishad.

“The police action is being done with a political motive. The government wants to divide society in the name of caste and class. There are systematic efforts to create a divide between the supporters of reservation and those who oppose it. Earlier, some anti-social elements tried to fuel a rift between Maratha and Dalit communities. Later they tried to provoke Hindu-Muslim riots. But they have failed to achieve what they wanted,” Ambedkar said.

“If there is really threat to the life of PM, then the security agencies handled the matter in the most immature way,” he added.

“The police have no courage to arrest Sambhaji Bhide because he is the guru of PM Modi and CM Devendra Fadnavis. They are implicating innocent people in the crime just to cover up their incompetence,” Ambedkar said.

In a series of raids, Pune police had arrested activists Rona Wilson and Rana Jacob from New Delhi, Sudhir Dhavale of Elgar Parishad from Mumbai and activist Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut and Advocate Surendra Gadling from Nagpur on 6 June.

One of the letters was allegedly recovered from computers belonging to Wilson. Ambedkar and several other Dalit and Left outfits have accused the BJP of trying to delegitimise the struggle of Dalits.

The BJP, which had earlier gone hammer and tongs on the issue, has now suddenly gone silent.

“We don't comment on court matters. Court will decide whether they are Maoists or not,” said BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.