Monday 19th February marked the 369th Birth Anniversary of Hindu emperor Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, and as a result, tribute poured in from various sections of the Indian political sphere, which included Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The PM decided to give a personal touch to his wishes by tweeting out a 1.35-minute video:
I bow to Shivaji Maharaj on his Jayanti. Jai Shivaji! pic.twitter.com/C73OpDHT65
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 19, 2018
The video contained pictures and small clips of PM Modi paying to tribute to the legendary king, along with an accompanying audio containing rapturous chants of “Jai Bhawani Jai Shivaji” and a voice over of the Prime Minister’s speeches about Shivaji.
The gesture was enthusiastically welcomed by Twitter users as signified by more than 8,271 retweets and 35,690 favourites garnered by the tweet. It though incidentally also managed to generate criticism among a section of what some might say a predominantly leftist twitter base:
Extreme right (no pun intended) with PM Modi is Manohar Bhide, main accused in attack on Dalits at Bhima Koregaon. Strange how people who are photographed with Modi consistently escape the law pic.twitter.com/IvFl9m6YgN
— Aditya Menon (@AdityaMenon22) February 19, 2018
Now you will understand why Manohar alias Sambhaji Bhide is not arrested after BhimaKoregaon violence. https://t.co/M33wQFvpml
— nikhil wagle (@waglenikhil) February 19, 2018
As uncovered by minute analysis by the aforementioned twitter users, one of the embedded pictures in PM Modi’s video supposedly showed him sharing the stage with Sambhaji Bhide:
Sambhaji Bhide, who is the founder of Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan, has incidentally been named as an accused in the Bhima-Koregaon violence which broke out, in the backdrop of celebrations to mark a British victory over Peshwas. As reported, Bhide was accused of desecrating a Dalit icon’s samadhi along with BJP leader Milind Ekbote.
This became the focal point of the attack against the PM, about how could he share a picture of his sharing a stage with Bhide when the latter is accused of insulting Dalit icons. But things aren’t as simple as they look.
Even though accusations were levelled against Bhide, a few days later it was reported that the police had failed to find any evidence against him, regardless of which media housed decided to “indict” him.
Come February, the police had managed to collect sufficient proof against Ekbote to supposedly warrant his arrest, but were nowhere close to nailing Bhide as the police couldn’t find anything linking him to the violence. Subsequently, an arrest warrant was issued against Ekbote but nothing was mentioned regarding any evidence against Bhide or his status as an accused.
Consequently, based on the above facts, no evidence seems to have been uncovered against Bhide till date, which might turn this episode into becoming a classic case of the left’s hypocrisy.
The leftist establishment as seen in the past has been very “kind and considerate” towards those accused of crimes including serious ones like sexual offences. This “kindness” is also seen in the form of being silent when one of their own like Tarun Tejpal is accused of sexual assaults.
The left ecosystem is further seen showering its benevolence on sexual offenders by outright mainstreaming them, via various measures like lit-fest invitations. Things are so degenerate that it’s an open secret how sexual predators camouflage and waltz around as ‘liberals’.
So why does the same ecosystem not have enough consideration for someone like Bhide who has neither been arrested nor has any clinching evidence been uncovered against him? Why did no one from the left try to shield him when he and the Prime Minister were attacked via the latter’s tweet.
Is it merely because of the saffron identity that he isn’t afforded the same standards which are set for the members of the cosy club? And does the left not realise that it is glaringly exposing its hypocrisy by choosing to make someone look more innocent or guilty based its convenience.
