Day after Vemula rally in Mumbai was attacked, RSS workers say they were provoked

A day after around 12 workers belonging to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh attacked a peaceful protest of students, activists and political workers in Mumbai, the Sangh on Monday claimed that its members were provoked into action.

On Sunday evening, a group of around 500 people marching in the Mumbai neighbourhood of Dharavi to protest the suicide of PhD scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad a week ago were attacked by RSS workers with lathis as the procession passed the organisation's office.

“In the Sangh, we don’t talk about caste at all, you know,” said Chittaranjan Muthaiah, who has been with the Dharavi shakha in question for 32 years. “But they came and stood outside our office and were shouting against the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party], Modi and the RSS. So we also had to reply.”

According to those present at the rally, the Sangh’s workers shouted slogans against Dalit icon BR Ambedkar as the procession passed their office. The RSS men are said to have targeted women, in particular. Ten participants in the rally, more than half of whom were women, sustained minor injuries. The RSS says that four of its workers were also injured in the scuffle.

The moment the RSS workers attacked the crowd, the police moved in to stop the violence. After hours of protest outside the Dharavi police station by participants in the rally, the police finally charged RSS workers under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. It was not immediately clear how many people had been booked for the incident.

Ajmal Khan, a student at the rally who was injured in the scuffle and taken to the hospital, noted that there are gaps in the RSS version of events. The police had stationed a van at each end of the Vemula procession and also protected the participants when violence broke out.

“If we had sticks and stones with us, wouldn’t the police have stopped us before we began marching?” Khan asked. “And if the police took us to the hospital because we were injured, why didn’t they also take the person who the RSS is now claiming that we beat up? Why should they delay his treatment for four hours?”

Police officials were unavailable for comment.

Who attacked first

On Monday, the RSS office, a relatively new two-storied building in a by-lane of Dharavi, was almost deserted. Most of its RSS workers had gone to secure the release of their accused colleagues. Policemen stationed at the office after the incident finished their lunch inside one of the rooms. Outside, a lone television news reporter waited for people to return.

“In all my life, there has never been an incident of violence,” said Girish Shinde, nephew of a leather shop owner near the RSS office. “Maybe elsewhere in other parts of the city it is true that they have been aggressive, but out here they only have cultural programmes and give classes to children.”

Part of this training that the RSS gives children is to use lathis in combat. It was these lathis that the 10 to 12 workers seized when the rally passed their office.

The BJP's Mangalprabhat Lodha, who has represented the posh Malabar Hill constituency in the Maharashtra legislature for four terms running, made a quiet appearance at the office late on Monday afternoon to express his solidarity with the workers.

“Tell me what happened,” he asked the workers who came with him. “How many people attacked you?”

“More than 200,” said Muthaiah.

Picking up the pieces

Lodha framed his question conveniently for his audience. But according to participants of the 500-strong rally, the attackers were actually members of the RSS and not the other way around.

“The rally was going on, but we did not know there was an RSS office there,” said Shyam Sonar, a member of the Republican Panthers who was at the event. “It was only after they attacked us that the local people told us that it was an RSS office.”

Shankar Patil, another member of the Republican Panthers present at the rally, says that the attack must have been planned.

“They were waiting for us as we passed their office,” said Patil. “But as soon as they attacked us, the police lathi-charged them so they were not able to do much damage.”

Said Khan, “The police is now saying that the rally had no permission, but we informed them of the route in advance and did not change it. If they had a problem with us, why did they accompany us?”

Inside the office, RSS workers had another story.

“We were having a meeting to plan our function for Tuesday when we heard the rally coming,” Muthaiah said. “They were chanting slogans saying against BJP, Modi and RSS right outside our office.”

Muthaiah claimed that when the RSS workers opened the door to see what was going on, rally participants began to throw stones at them. Their response, they say, was to lash into the crowd with their lathis. The police have confiscated all the lathis they had stored in the office.

Slogans are, of course, a routine part of any rally. When this was pointed out to Muthaiah, Lodha interjected.

“If someone attacks us in our own house, will we not respond?” he asked. “They were the ones throwing stones so of course our workers went out as well.”

“It’s not just here,” Muthaiah began to say. “Even the ABVP [Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the BJP's student wing] office in Matunga was attacked on Saturday—.”

At this point, Lodha advised Muthaiah not to continue speaking.

Rallies go on

Despite the scuffle, rallies protesting Vemula’s death continued in Mumbai. Just on Monday, there were protest marches at Thane, Worli and Azad Maidan. A much larger rally is planned from Byculla Zoo to Mantralaya on February 1, which organisers hope up to 20,000 will attend.

“We want justice for Rohith,” said Rahima Shiddhi, a municipal school teacher at the Azad Maidan rally organised by the Swabhimani Republican Party’s youth wing on Monday. “We also want to make sure that this will never happen again with one of our own children.”