Dalit fires make Sonia turn the heat on Deshmukh, scrap foreign trip

A Day after Maharashtra’s Dalit heartland went up in fiery protest, Congress president Sonia Gandhi today pulled up Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh...

A Day after Maharashtra’s Dalit heartland went up in fiery protest, Congress president Sonia Gandhi today pulled up Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, got his foreign trip cancelled and put political secretary Ahmad Patel to monitor the situation in the state.

Violent rage in Maharashtra over the rape and killing of members of a Dalit family in Khairlanji, aggravated by news of the desecration of an Ambedkar statue near Kanpur, have put the party and its government in a spot. State party chief Prabha Rao called on Gandhi today and briefed her on the developments.

One immediate effect of Ganghi’s chat with Deshmukh was the arrest of two key accused in the village crime, early today. Sarpanch Upasrao Khandate and deputy Urkhoda Khurpe were arrested from Khairlanji on charges of conspiracy and abetment in the murders.

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“The Congress president is very concerned and is personally taking steps to ensure situation is brought back to normalcy,” Rao told The Indian Express after meeting Sonia. “Issues involving Dalits and weaker sections of the society are very sensitive to our party.”

Coming soon after Muslim protests of police high-handedness in the state, the Congress leadership is worried over the political costs the current Dalit outrage in the state may incur. Investigations into blasts on Mumbai trains on July 11 and Malegaon have led to complaints that the Muslim community was being targeted.