Minority appeasement continues to hurt India’s battle against COVID-19, and leading such appeasement in times of the ongoing Pandemic is Maharashtra- the state with more than 9,000 confirmed cases and 400 COVID-19 deaths. Maharashtra under CM Uddhav Thackeray has been an absolute let-down when it comes dealing with the disease as well as the rogue elements of society amid lockdown.
Minority appeasement has thrived in Uddhav Thackeray’s rule like never before and on Monday, two different incidents showed how the Maharashtra Police has become helpless in the face of radical Islamist mobs that are politically emboldened.
In Pune’s Pimpri-Chinchwad area, three individuals, including a cop, have been arrested for assaulting an on-duty police constable.
The three accused have been identified as Yunus Attar (50), his sons Matin (28) and Moin (24)- all three of them are residents of Kalewadi area. A footage of the incident that took place on Monday evening has gone viral on social media, in which the trio can be seen attacking the police Constable brutally.
https://twitter.com/pokershash/status/1254988981382647809?s=20
The incident took place in the Kalewadi area of Pimpri Chinchwad area, when police reached the spot on reports of crowding near a fruit vendor and violation of the social distancing norms after the mandates hours.
There are fixed timings for selling fruits and vegetables in the concerned area, but the essentials were being sold beyond the fixed timings which had led to the Maharashtra police immediately reaching the spot.
However, instead of paying heed, the three accused started arguing with the police Constable who reached the spot to clear it, and the off-duty cop attacked the constable with a lathi. According to the FIR lodged by the police Constable, the accused also threatened to kill him.
Pimpri Chinchwad itself is a hotspot of the novel Wuhan virus with as many as 105 cases, and at such times the police is being attacked if they try to enforce social distancing norms.
Another report coming in from Aurangabad in Maharashtra is even more disturbing. A group of 40 men had gathered at a mosque to offer Namaz in the Bidkin village of Aurangabad’s Paithan taluka.
Large religious gatherings are banned, and police and local administration had communicated prohibitory orders to the mosques before the month of Ramzan started. Yet the mob gathered at the Aurangabad mosque to offer prayers on Monday.
When the police tried to break the gathering and vacate the premises of the Mosque, they were attacked by a group of men and women. A mob started pelting stones on the policemen, and they were also supported by the women in the area who started attacking the police party. An officer and two policemen of Maharashtra Policehave been injured in the mob attack, while 27 accused have been arrested till now.
The two incidents expose how Islamist mobs are openly flouting social distancing norms and attacking police personnel in Maharashtra. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has already been a failure in containing the Coronavirus outbreak, and now his appeasement politics is pushing Maharashtra towards to an even bigger crisis.
