Bhima Koregaon agitation was manufactured: BJP
New Delhi, June 7: The BJP on Thursday said that the Bhima Koregaon agitation in Maharashtra as "manufactured" and accused the Congress of using Dalits as a "tool" to come back to power.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also demanded an answer from Congress President Rahul Gandhi over a letter written after the agitation by Maoist leader concerning purported role of Congress in backing the outfit legally and financially.
The BJP's attack came a day after the Pune police arrested five people allegedly having close Maoist links, including prominent Dalit activist Sudhir Dhawale from Mumbai, Lawyer Surendra Gadling, activist Mahesh Raut and Shoma Sen from Nagpur and Rona Wilson from Delhi in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence on January 1.
"The hunger for power in the Congress has been exposed as never before to the series of documents and the series of facts that we are going to keep in front of you," BJP leader Sambit Patra told reporteres here at a press conference.
Attacking Congress over the alleged letter recovered from the house of Wilson in Delhi, Patra said, "Letter is an integral document of the Maoists. This letter is means of communication as to how violence can be perpetrated in this country."
Patra said that the Bhima Koregaon incident started on December 31, 2017 and culminated around evening on January 1, 2018 in which a youth lost his life. And the letter was written on January 2, 2018.
According to the BJP leader the letter was allegedly written by a core committee member of the banned outfit, CPI-Maoist, lauding the efforts by Rona and others to make Elgaar Parishad - organised by Dalit and left-wing organisations at Pune's Shaniwarwada on December 31 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Bhima Koregaon battle a success.
"But once you go through this letter and you will find that Dalits were being used as tools," the BJP leader alleged.
He also described the agitation in Bhima Koregaon as a "manufactured agitation" instead of a spontaneous one.
Referring to the contents of the letter, the BJP leader said, "Comrade Deepu and Comrade Manglu have been coordinating the Bhima Koregaon programme with Comrade Sudhir. They have got support from large sections of Dalits acrtoss the state and Comrade Jignesh (Mewani) and Comrade Umer (Khalid) are young fighters of our revolution."
"Last year in July and August the Higher Committee has provided two rounds of funds to Comrade Sudhir (Dhawale) for this task. Comrade Shoma (Sen) and Surendra are authorised to provide funds for future programmes as well. The Bhima Koregaon agitation has been very effective," Patra said.
"The death of a youth must be exploited to prepare future agitations and propaganda materials," he read.
"Can anyone of us think of exploiting the death of a youth? But here it is being done to exploit. It is conspired and a letter is written for that," he said.
"This is a culture which has been set time and again as politcial vulturanism on a dead body. You see a dead as an opportunity. And we condemn this," he said.
Hitting out at the Congress President, Patra said, Gandhi has to answer why he was standing with such people who were trying to break the nation.
"Senior comrades from CPI-Maoists leadership have had prior talks with our friends in Congress who suggested to continue Dalit mobilisation more aggressively whatever legal and financial aide is required they are ready to provide through the intermediary (Jignesh)," Patra said reading from the letter.
He also said that the letter proved that there was an "anti-India gang of urban naxals", who had been trying to subvert the country.
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Power tariffs under BESCOM to rise from May 1
Bengaluru (PTI): Power bills for consumers under the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM) will go up from May 1, following an order issued by the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) on Friday.
The hike comes after KERC allowed the BESCOM to recover a revenue deficit of Rs 2,068 crore incurred in 2024-25, from the consumers.
As a result, for every unit of electricity consumed in 2024-25, the customers will be charged an additional 56 paise, it said.
"BESCOM shall calculate, for each of the active consumers of FY2024-25 the amount to be recovered based on their actual energy consumption during FY2024-25. Such amount shall be recovered during FY 2026-27 in equal monthly instalments, to be called as 'FY25 True up Charges', commencing from the first meter reading date falling on or after 1 May 2026 and concluding with the reading date ending on 30 April 2027," the order said.
"It is further ordered that BESCOM shall maintain a separate head of account, allocated for the purpose, to record the adjustment of the said amount to ensure full recovery of the deficit," it added.
Similarly Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation Limited (CESC) has also recorded a revenue deficit of Rs 121.71 crore and can collect an additional 15 paisa per unit for consumption in 2024-25, official sources said.
