Unmesh Gujarathi
Sprouts Exclusive
Recently, Shree Parivar, a spiritual and social organisation nurtured for four decades, suffered a tragedy in Kharghar due to the poor planning of the government. This is a story of how those in power often use honest and selfless individuals as scapegoats to further their own agendas.”
It is the story of the year 2000. I am pursuing journalism at K. C. College, Churchgate. At that time the then Mumbai Municipal Corporation Commissioner G. R. Khairnar had come. Khairnar was known as a dashing and conscientious officer. He had bulldozed many illegal buildings in Mumbai. At that time, they razed the buildings of street leaders, goons to notorious underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Bhendi Bazaar. They were often attacked and shot, but they never went away. Khairnar also criticized the duplicitous Sharad Pawar, who met Gautam Adani today and helped Prime Minister Narendra Modi in trouble on occasion. At that time, Khairnar had said that there is a truckload of evidence against Sharad Pawar.
G. R. Khairnar was interviewed at the college. This interview was conducted by senior journalist Mahesh Mhatre. At that time I asked Khairnar a question, let alone a truckload of evidence; At least you have not presented enough evidence to fill a bullock cart. Khairnar first laughed at this question and said that you haven’t even started journalism yet, actual politics is very different and scary. A simple person does not even know that someone will be victimized by someone.
Khairnar’s words, however, I often feel now. In politics, only the honest, selfless person is sacrificed. Spiritual Guru and Nirupankar Appasaheb Dharmadhikari and his father (Nanasaheb) created branches of ‘Shri Parivar’ from village to village with great effort. He was also accompanied by his son. However, it will not be wrong to say that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde also made ‘Khairnar’ for him. The tragedy in Kharghar left a stain on Shri Parivar, raised and nurtured for the past four decades.
Shree Parivar is spreading in Maharashtra, but due to this incident, Shree Sadsya (members) and Appasaheb are being ridiculed on social media. Real scoffers should first understand the ‘Baithak’. The spiritual and social functioning of the family should also be checked. Appasaheb’s work is huge, those who mock Bageshwar Maharaj will not understand it in their birth.
A lesson should be learned from the incident in Kharghar. Care should be taken to ensure that the bad smell of politics should never come back to Shri Parivar and there should be a judicial inquiry into this incident. Shinde wanted to show his strength in front of Home Minister Amit Shah, on that occasion, he wanted to show that he is a capable alternative to Devendra Fadnavis in politics, for that Shinde played this ‘game’.
In fact, it is easy to put up a tent on this ground. But the leaders must have thought about how to shoot with drones. Toilets and a water system were built at a long distance in this ground. That was not enough. Hot water did not quench the thirst, not only that, drinking more water made the urine travel longer, so many people drank less water. All these things were caused by the poor planning of the government. Due to this, there was a stampede. It is estimated that more than 50 Shri (Sadasya) members died. But even here the real number of dead was hidden. Actually this number is increasing day by day.
What is even more annoying is that the program was scheduled in the afternoon. Minister Uday Samant has alleged that that time was decided by Shri Sadasya (members). Listening to boring speeches of political leaders in this scorching sun was torture. Actually, Home Minister Amit Shah wanted to go to Goa in the evening, so afternoon time was fixed for his convenience. Therefore, this allegation made by Samant on behalf of the government is very outrageous. This is a disgusting form of blaming the government.
In order to have the blessing of Appasaheb, thousands of Shri Sadasya (members) had come since the previous night. But they were short of food, water and accommodation. Many were starved for more than six hours, the post-mortem reports of the dead have now revealed.
AAP’s Dhananjay Shinde has also demanded that a case of culpable homicide should be filed against those who caused this serious incident to the Kharghar police.
