Police scuffle with Warkaris, sect BJP has tried to woo, sparks political row in Maharashtra

Mumbai: The Maharashtra police and the Warkari followers received concerned in an altercation Sunday when the devotees took out an annual procession in Pune to Pandharpur forward of the auspicious event of Ashadi Ekadashi.  

Maharashtra Residence Minister Devendra Fadnavis refuted the claims of lathi cost, whereas the opposition events smelled a gap to assault the practically one-year-old Bharatiya Janata Social gathering-Shiv Sena authorities. 

“There was no lathi cost on the Warkari neighborhood. We learnt (our classes) from final 12 months’s stampede-like state of affairs on the identical place (Alandi) and tried giving fewer entry passes to varied teams. It was determined to problem 75 passes to every group that participated within the pilgrimage. Nonetheless round 400-500 younger warkaris needed to enter the temple and so they broke the barricade. That is when police tried to cease them,” Fadnavis stated Sunday in Nagpur. “On this incident, even some police personnel had been injured.” 

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) spokesperson Sanjay Raut was fast to assault the Eknath Shinde-led coalition authorities, saying that “Mughals have reincarnated in Maharashtra”.

अरे अरे.. हिंदूत्ववादी सरकारचे ढोंग उघडे पडले.. मुखवटे गळून पडले..औरंगजेब यापेक्षा वेगळे काय वागत होता?वारकऱ्यांचा हिंदू आक्रोश सरकार असा चिरडून टाकतआहे. मोगलाई महाराष्ट्रात पुन्हा अवतरली आहे..@BJP4Maharashtra @Dev_Fadnavis @AUThackeray
@ https://t.co/pnUc45IZ01

— Sanjay Raut (@rautsanjay61) June 11, 2023

Equally, Nationalist Congress Social gathering (NCP) senior chief Chaggan Bhujbal alleged that the police motion was “an insult” to the Warkaris.

आळंदीत सर्वसामान्य वारकरी बांधवांवर झालेला लाठीमार बघून अत्यंत वाईट वाटलं. या दुर्दैवी प्रकाराची शासनाने तातडीने गांभीर्याने दखल घ्यावी व दोषींवर कारवाई करावी!@Dev_Fadnavis @mieknathshinde @CMOMaharashtra #Varkari #वारकरी pic.twitter.com/SNmeNwuHii

— Chhagan Bhujbal (@ChhaganCBhujbal) June 11, 2023

“Warkaris are themselves telling that they’ve been attacked. However Fadnavis can’t see this. And now there’s a strain to delete the lathi cost video and declare that police didn’t resort to lathi cost. Fadnavis’ claims are lies,” Congress state president Nana Patole stated on the Congress workplace in Mumbai.

However who’re the Warkaris? However who’re these Warkaris? Although not recognized to have aligned with any occasion,  the Warkaris are being wooed by numerous quarters. In June final 12 months, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a shila (rock) temple on the Sant Tukaram Maharaj mandir (temple) devoted to the Seventeenth-century saint in Dehu, close to Pune. 

“Earlier, no one considered Warkaris as a neighborhood to be tapped (electorally). However Modi’s go to to Dehu is a well-thought-out technique. The Warkari sect has lots of significance in Maharashtra and his (Modi’s) bulletins had been acquired with claps in every single place,” political analyst Hemant Desai had advised ThePrint after Modi’s go to final 12 months.

“Warkaris are from all castes and communities, however Marathas are principally dominant. The inhabitants from rural Maharashtra is particularly related to the Wari, and the BJP needs to take rural Maharashtra together with them,” Desai stated.

Referring to Modi’s rally in Dehu, political analyst Pratap Asbe had advised ThePrint that the political motives behind the transfer can’t be dominated out. “The BJP immediately needs to enchantment to the Bahujan samaj since Sant Tukaram has greater enchantment in that neighborhood,” he had stated. 

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Warkaris & Wari

The Warkari sect includes devotees of Lord Vitthal, the presiding deity of Pandharpur and believed to be an incarnation of Lord Krishna. 

Tracing its roots to the Bhakti motion, the Warkaris declare to be apolitical and caste agnostic. The members of this sect additionally observe the teachings of Bhakti saint-poets Tukaram, Dnyaneshwar, and Namdeo, amongst others.

Advocate Vikas Dhage Patil, a functionary on the Shree Dnyaneshwar Maharaj Sansthan Committee in Pune’s Alandi, had stated the Warkaris don’t subscribe to any caste or faith and are followers of the saints who themselves hailed from totally different castes.

“Tolerance and inclusiveness is the thought behind this (Warkari sect). The message a couple of casteless society led to the social motion,” Patil stated, including that the sect comes out in full energy when it undertakes the annual ‘Wari’ pilgrimage, which dates again practically 700-800 years.

For hundreds of years, the temple cities of Dehu and Alandi have been the beginning factors of the Wari, which sees participation by lakhs of devotees who accompany the padukas (illustration of toes) of Sant Tukaram and Sant Dnyaneshwar, respectively, to Pandharpur.

“An individual from a ‘decrease caste’ may take part within the Wari, whereas now we have many Muslim contributors as nicely. All it’s essential to be is a devotee of the saint,” Patil stated. 

Whereas many who participate within the Wari are farmers, working professionals are additionally among the many 12 lakh Warkaris — based on Patil’s estimate — who collect at Pandharpur every year for the pilgrimage. 

(Edited by Tony Rai)

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