Empty hand

While the Shiv Sena and the NCP strive to set the governance agenda, the Congress struggles to stay relevant

- DNYANESH JATHAR

The Union government’s decision to hand over the Elgar Parishad and Bhi-ma Koregaon cases to the National Investigation Agency could turn into a long-drawn fight with the Maharashtra government as the state plans to challenge the move legally. The Maharashtra police had arrested nine activists—Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawale, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Rona Wilson and Varavara Rao—in 2018 for allegedly delivering inflammatory speeches at a meeting of the Elgar Parishad in Pune on December 31, 2017. According to the police, the speeches had led to the caste violence in Bhima Koregaon the next day.

Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar, who has for long maintained that the case was politically motivated, had written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray demanding reinvestigation by a special investigation team (SIT). Even before Thackeray could respond, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Home Minister Anil Deshmukh held a meeting on January 23 to review the cases and initiate steps to set up an SIT. But the Union home ministry stepped in the very next day and handed over the case to the NIA.