The manner in which the Central government transferred the Elgaar Parishad case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) raises concerns and is an attempt to label people associated with progressive, Dalit and Ambedkarite movements as Naxals, State Congress president and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat said on Tuesday.
“Elgaar Parishad was a platform for intellectuals, liberals and poets. It is wrong to take action against them just because they have spoken against the government. This is an attempt to the gag progressive and Ambedkarite voices,” he said.
His statement comes at a time when both Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar have advocated the need to set up a Special Investigation Team to probe the case. This is seen as an attempt by all three parties in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party on the matter.
Mr. Thorat said the party is not supporting anyone who acted with any other intentions. “But the timing of the case being handed over to the NIA makes it even more suspicious,” he said.
However, Tuesday also brought to the fore the differences between the three parties over the National Population Register, with Mr. Thackeray saying the State would not block the exercise. Mr. Thorat said the Congress opposes the NPR, Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizenship. “There is no question of going back on this. We will speak to our allies and convey our stand,” he said.
