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Bhima-Koregaon a symbol of resistance, govt's NIA stooges can never erase: Rahul Gandhi

NEW DELHI/Mumbai: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday termed Koregaon Bhima a symbol of resistance that "government's stooges" can never erase.

Gandhi, referring to Home minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "MOSH", in a tweet, added that whosoever tries to oppose the government is branded "Urban Naxal" by them. The tweet came a day after the government decided to transfer the Koregaon Bhima case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

"Anyone who opposes the MOSH agenda of hate is an "Urban Naxal". Bhima-Koregaon is a symbol of resistance that the Government's NIA stooges can never erase," he tweeted.

The Koregaon Bhima case was being probed by the Pune police and the Centre's decision to hand it over to the NIA on Friday came a day after the police briefed Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and state Home minister Anil Deshmukh about the status of the probe.

The move, to transfer the case to NIA, takes the matter entirely out of the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi government's hands and nullifies what BJP has perceived as attempts by the new three-party alliance government in the state to dilute the case filed when Devendra Fadnavis was leading the previous BJP-Sena regime.

On Thursday, NCP chief Sharad Pawar had written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray asking him to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the police action in the Elgar Parishad case in which nine activists were arrested by Pune police for their alleged links with the banned CPI (Maoist). Meanwhile, Pawar on Saturday alleged that the Centre transferred the probe for fear of getting exposed.

Talking to reporters in Mumbai, Pawar said that speaking against injustice was not Naxalism. "I think the government fears that it may be exposed. So the decision has been taken (to transfer the case to NIA)," he said. According to Pune police, the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, was supported by Maoists and inflammatory speeches made at the event led to the caste violence at the Koregaon Bhima war memorial in the district the next day.

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