Coming against the backdrop of the R.G. Kar hospital incident in Kolkata, which has shaken the nation, Badlapur has been horrific.
Unprecedented protests last week by local people and their mishandling by the BJP-dominated Maha Yuti administration, which resorted to a police lathi charge, have resulted in anger. Badlapur falls in chief minister Eknath Shinde’s home district of Thane.
Two four-year-old girls were sexually assaulted inside their school’s washroom in Badlapur in Thane district by a male attendant on August 12 and 13. The FIR in the case was lodged on August 16 and the accused was arrested on August 17.
Badlapur is not an exception. In the far-away Buldhana district of Vidarbha, a 56-year-old teacher accused of sexually assaulting four girl students is absconding. Reports had it that a mentally challenged woman was gang-raped in Chandrapur district and that one of the accused even made a video of the incident.
Maharashtra may boast of being one of the most progressive states, but the safety and security of women, including girls, in the state is not something to be proud of. The most urbanised state in the country is also the most industrialised, to which people from all over the country migrate in search of work and a better living.
So the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi is seeking to use the incidents against women and girls to take the steam out of the Ladki Bahin Yojana – announced by the Shinde government to provide Rs 1,500 to around 2.5 crore women in the state every month – in order to emerge as the winner in the assembly polls scheduled for November.
“We don’t want Ladki Bahin, we want Surakshit Bahin”, Aghadi supporters chanted during the protests in the state.
The chief justice of the Bombay high court may have banned today’s ‘Maharashtra bandh’ called by the Aghadi. But not to be undone, the Aghadi has still seized the moment by organising silent protests with Sharad Pawar leading the agitation in Pune and Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai. Aghadi leaders said the protests were also being organised at the district and tehsil levels by local leaders.
The Badlapur incident created much concern. A division bench of the high court took suo motu cognisance of it two days ago, describing the sexual assault on the two minor girls as “absolutely shocking”.
It observed that there cannot be any compromise with the safety and security of girls and said action should be taken against the school’s authorities for not reporting the incident despite being aware of it. It also blasted the police over its delay in registering the FIR in the case.
In the run-up to the assembly polls, the incident was bound to come under sharp focus after the bench’s observation that the police machinery had not moved until the public hit the streets in protest.
The state’s home ministry is handled by deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, the BJP’s top leader in the state. Fadnavis had been chief minister for a full term from October 2014 to 2019. An advocate known to be close to Fadnavis had approached the high court against the Maharashtra bandh.
What added fuel to the fire was the chief minister’s initial reaction that the protests were “motivated because the protestors were not local residents”. “The local residents who were part of the protest could be counted on one’s fingers,” he had said.
Cases were also filed against several protestors.
An observer put it aptly: “The Badlapur protests were a response to the crime – and therefore a very necessary public expression of anger, plus a response to inaction. Penalising these protestors and calling them politically motivated is bad governance and worse politics.”
The opposition looks to have seized the moment ahead of the assembly polls by postponing their seat-sharing talks and instead focusing on women’s safety.
Worry in the ruling alliance is that the incident could shift focus from the recent launch of the Ladki Bahin scheme, which its leaders feel could become a game changer.
With women in the state plumping for the scheme hook, line and sinker, the feeling, right or wrong, in the ruling alliance is that the key to El Dorado has been found and that ‘Ladki Bahin’ will help it retain power. It is as if the life of the BJP-dominated government hangs by a thread.
The chief minister has confirmed trial payments of Rs 3,000 under Ladki Bahin for two months. The scheme targets women aged 21-65 years with family incomes under Rs 2.5 lakh annually and other specific eligibility criteria.
The Modi government at the Centre too is being brought under fire on the issue of women’s safety.
Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh has demanded that the Union government clear the Shakti Bill passed when the Aghadi was in power. The Bill provides for the death penalty for atrocities against children and women.
Both houses of Maharashtra’s legislature had passed the Shakti Criminal Laws (Maharashtra Amendment) Bill, 2020, and the Special Court & Machinery for Implementation of Maharashtra Shakti Criminal Law, 2020, three years ago when the Aghadi was in power.
A section of political observers, including poll pundits, believe that the BJP and its allies are facing an uphill task after a poor show in the Lok Sabha polls and as it has nothing much to show for the issue of governance despite the ‘double engine’ boast.
This poser by a prominent political scientist, Suhas Palshikar, is telling: “Will delayed assembly elections help [the] BJP/Mahayuti in Maharashtra or will an early assembly election have cut the losses for the BJP/Mahayuti?”
What Maharashtra is witnessing today is a desperate alliance pitching its hope on a darling scheme to woo distraught women.
Observers believe that Ladli Behena may be a hit with women in backward Madhya Pradesh, but just Rs 1,500 per month would be peanuts in premier Maharashtra.
As if taking a cue from such feedback, Shinde, whose ambitions are soaring, has made it known that if the Maha Yuti retains power, the eligible women would gradually get Rs 3,000 per month. Since nothing much has been done by the Maha Yuti in the past two years that has appealed to people, the scheme has virtually given the ruling alliance a leg to stand on.
Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari are New Delhi-based journalists.
