Maharashtra recommends Bhima-Koregaon clash accused for Padma Shri
Mumbai: The right-wing leader from Sangli Manohar alias Sambhaji Bhide, an accused of inciting the Bhima-Koregaon violence, had been recommended for a Padma award by the BJP government in Maharashtra in 2016.
Bhide, 84, who is also known as Bhide Guruji, is a controversial figure. His name was in the First Information Report (FIR) with another right wing leader Milind Ekbote. They have been accused of inciting villagers, who attacked Dalit groups paying tributes to the Mahar regiment soldiers who they believe defeated the Peshwas.
A committee, comprising 10 senior ministers, had recommended Bhide’s name for the Padma Shri. Significantly, the recommendation had been made by the committee using its discretion, even though the government had not received any application for it.
Bhinde, a former RSS worker, also faces charges of instigating communal riots in Miraj-Sangli in Sangli district during Ganpati emersion, over an arch sporting a poster depicting the slaying of Afzal Khan. A demand was made for his arrest, but the then Congress-NCP government did not take any action against him. He was also in the news nationally when the organisation ransacked theatres to protest the Hindi movie Jodha-Akbar in 2008.
Bhide is founder of Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan, an outfit which has been active for the past three decades in spreading awareness about the life of Maratha warrior king Shivaji.
Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Dr BR Ambedkar and a Dalit leader, criticised the government’s decision, terming it ‘intellectual bankruptcy’.
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Give martyr status to Pahalgam terror attack victims: Rahul Gandhi to PM Modi
New Delhi, May 1 (PTI): Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday to accord the status of a martyr to those killed in the Pahalgam terror attack.
In a post on X, the Congress leader said he stands with the families of those killed in the Pahalgam attack and backs their demand that the victims be given the status of a martyr.
"I stand with the families of those killed in the Pahalgam attack in their grief and in their demand for martyr status to them.
"The prime minister is requested to respect the sentiments of the families of those who lost their lives in this tragedy by giving this honour to them," Gandhi said in his post on the microblogging platform in Hindi.
The Congress MP from Rae Bareli met the family members of a Pahalgam attack victim in Kanpur on Wednesday and said they want martyr status for the deceased.
"I met a victim's family in Kanpur. They asked me to send a message to Narendra Modi. On behalf of all those families, I want to tell the prime minister -- 'prime minister, they have said that our children have been martyred. We want you to give them the status of a martyr and give them respect'," the Congress leader told reporters on Wednesday.
Gandhi visited the family members of Shubham Dwivedi in Kanpur and said the opposition is demanding a special session of Parliament to ensure that the Pahalgam attack victims get justice.
Twenty-six people, mostly tourists, were killed and several injured when terrorists opened fire at a meadow near the popular tourist town of Pahalgam in south Kashmir's Anantnag district on April 22.
पहलगाम हमले में मारे गए लोगों के परिवारों के दुख में, शहीद के दर्जे की उनकी मांग में, मैं साथ खड़ा हूं।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 1, 2025
प्रधानमंत्री से आग्रह है कि वो इस त्रासदी में जान गंवाने वालों को यह सम्मान देकर उनके परिवारों की भावना का आदर करें। pic.twitter.com/auMEehEnOO
