The Maharashtra government and its ministers under CM Uddhav Thackeray are behaving like a bunch of goons. News reports have emerged from Maharashtra where a 40-year old man, residing in Thane’s Ghodbunder Road was brutally thrashed by the state cabinet minister and NCP leader Jitendra Awhad’s and his gang of thugs. He had posted a morphed photo with Mr. Awhad’s face and a lit-up match stick with a caption, “I protest against the person who has edited the photo.”
Fascism techniques being used in Maharashtra to suppress the voice of common people on SM platforms are really worrying. MLA @niranjandtweets thanks for taking it up with @CMOMaharashtra @OfficeofUT. Will the CM show spine to take it up against @NCPspeaks minister @Awhadspeaks https://t.co/LVqfoR9qVI pic.twitter.com/xdfs2mIltN
— Pratik Karpe (@CAPratikKarpe) April 7, 2020
आपल्या नेत्यां बद्दल अस केले असते तर?
पूर्वी तुमच्या नेतृत्वा विषयी बोलले तरी जेल मध्ये टाकले जायचे
त्याचे फेस बुक तपासा मग बोला
विकृति चे समर्थन करता आहत pic.twitter.com/QznXbAs6RA— Dr.Jitendra Awhad (@Awhadspeaks) April 7, 2020
The incident took place on Sunday midnight, few hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s #9baje9minute campaign was observed where people across the country lit diyas and torch to show a “collective resolve” and gratitude to all emergency personnel fighting against the Wuhan virus. The minister was against the event and in his social media posts, he had claimed that he will not turn off lights. Anant posted a photo in a response on his Facebook account.
“On Sunday night, two policemen came to my house and said that they wanted to take me to the police station as their superior wanted to enquire about some case,” said Anant. The cops instead of taking him to the Police station took him to Awhad’s bungalow. “Upon reaching there, 10 to 15 men were already present, the security guard informed the minister and soon those men started beating me. They thrashed me with lathis, belt, and bamboos after the stick broke,” he further claimed. The entire episode happened in front of the minister.
Leader of opposition and the former Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis demanded the removal of Awhad from the Maharashtra cabinet for the alleged assault on the engineer.
“This is a serious incident where private bodyguards of a minister beat up a civilian by bringing him to his home. The minister was present when the man was being thrashed,” the BJP leader said.
Although this is not the first time the Maha Vikas Aghadi has taken the law in its hands and made a mockery of the entire law and order in the state. Last year in December, a man named Hiramani Tiwari was thrashed and had his head tonsured by ‘Shiv Sainiks’ for an anti-Uddhav post on Facebook. He had, on December 19th, posted his opinion about Uddhav Thackeray’s statement comparing police action on Jamia students to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Upon receiving threats from various quarters, he had subsequently deleted the post.
Certain extremely loyal Shiv Sainiks, however, showed up at the residence of Tiwari with 25-30 men and called him out of his house. The hoodlums slapped and thrashed Tiwari brutally, to the extent that the man’s medical report stated that there was severe damage to his eardrum.
Mumbai: A resident of Wadala allegedly thrashed by Shiv Sena workers for 'objectionable' social media post against CM. He says, "I posted that CM's comparison of Jamia Millia incident with Jallianwala Bagh was wrong. After that 25-30 people thrashed me & tonsured my head" (23.12) pic.twitter.com/Mc71LQMu4l
— Azaad Bharat (@AzaadBharat4) December 24, 2019
However distasteful the post of Anant was, beating up of common citizen is unbecoming of a minister and the raucous actions demand a probe. The minster should be rapped for taking the law in his own hands and immediately stripped of the power positions he holds.
