By Krishna Jha
In the early hours of August 20, 2013, Narendra Dabholkar was on his morning walk, part of his daily routine, when two bikers drove up to him and shot him dead.
Dabholkar was a rationalist, believed in scientific thinking, and always tried to struggle against any type of superstition. The founding of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti, under his leadership, was to serve the same purpose.
On May 10, 2024, a special Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) court in Pune convicted both the shooters, of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar’s murder and sentenced them for life.
Conviction of two persons linked, as claimed by CBI and reported by Hindustan Times, to Hindu right wing organisation, Sanatan Sanstha, in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case raises a long-standing question once again: shouldn’t the activities of Sanatan Sanstha be comprehensively investigated into?
But they were not only two, there were three more. Although the other three accused, including Virendrasinh Tawde, a senior office-bearer of Sanstha’s offshoot Hindu Jan Jagruti Samiti and an ENT surgeon who was named as the main conspirator in the murder, were let off, the judgment has nevertheless put the Sanatan Sanstha in the dock. While acquitting Tawde, the court said there was a “lot of scope for suspicion” against him, but “the prosecution has failed to provide evidence for it”. About the two accused who were let off along with Tawde , they said that “there is definitely suspicion” on them “but due to lack of evidence they are being acquitted”.
In February 2022, the CBI team investigating the case told the Bombay High Court that Tawde’s intention was to eliminate ‘anti-Hindus’ and people opposed to the customs and beliefs of the Sanatan Sanstha. The CBI said that it was Tawde who conspired and hired sharpshooters to murder Dabholkar because of ideological differences. The CBI also submitted that Tawde and his group followed the teachings of Sanathan Sanstha’s holy book called ‘Kshatra Dharma Sadhana’, which taught them how to tackle “anti-Hindu’s”.
The CBI’s affidavit read, “The crime gave a feeling that those who do any act which the accused persons and the Sanatan Sanstha / Hindu Jan Jagruti Samiti doesn’t like or tolerate, would be dealt with in a brutal manner. Such a feeling is more than sufficient to threaten the security of the people and the Nation. It had a terrorizing effect on society”.
The killing of Dabholkar was not a solitary event. Though first in series, there came several such horror events. Kannada scholar and writer M M Kalburgi was murdered in Karnataka’s Dharwad in August, 2015. Communist leader Govind Pansare was killed in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur in February 2015. Journalist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead in Bengaluru in September 2017. The killings were being probed as part of a larger conspiracy to attack rationalist thought.
Originally registered as a charitable trust by Jayant Athavale, his wife Kunda Athavale and their two accomplices, the Sanatan Sanstha claims to be an organization given “to educate people about the science of spiritualism”, to encourage them “to be sadhaks (seekers)” and “to guide sadhaks until they meet their Guru”. In course of time, Athavale’s enterprise gave birth to several outfits, all owing allegiance to him and yet presenting themselves as independent entities rather than Sanstha’s affiliates. These include various ashrams of Sanatan Sanstha as well as organizations like Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, Dharmashakti Sena and the newspaper called “Sanatan Prabhat”.
Given the kind of activities sadhaks have been accused of, it is not inconceivable that Athavale has considered the legal advantage of creating a network of outfits instead of forming branches of a mother organisation. By all means, “Athavaleism” is a construction that runs straight into the face of India’s Constitution. His spiritual preaching may often appear harmless, but his political teachings are far from benign. Articles and headlines of many editions of Sanatan Prabhat attack Muslims, Christians, rationalists and communists on regular basis and dub them as evil-doers.
The first time Sanatan Sanstha made headlines was in 2008 when Maharashtra police arrested several sadhaks in cases of two consecutive bomb blasts. First of these blasts took place on 31 May that year at Vishnu Bhave Auditorium in Vashi and the second went off in the parking area of Gadkari Rangayatan auditorium in Thane. The latter explosion, which was meant to protest a Marathi play “Amhi Pachpute” that allegedly showed Hindu gods and goddesses in poor light, left seven persons injured. In 2011, a Mumbai court sentenced two of the arrested Sadhaks – Vikram Bhave and Ramesh Gadkari – to ten years rigorous imprisonment for the two blasts.
Again on October 16, 2009, two sadhaks, Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik, died when the bomb they were allegedly carrying in their scooter went off prematurely at Madgaon in Goa. Sadhaks had allegedly planned to disrupt Narkasur effigy contest, a hugely popular festivity in Goa in which the demon (Narkasur) is celebrated on the eve of Diwali and which Sanatan Sanstha had declared as anti-Hindu.
Nevertheless, within a few months after Madgaon blast the Goa police unravelled the whole story of Sanatan Sanstha. “At present the institution (Sanatan Sanstha) appears to be developing into a stage of terror activities,” said a Goa police report prepared in 2010, “and if allowed to grow up in a peaceful state, there is imminent danger to the life, property, communal harmony of the state and the nation.”
This report formed the basis of 1000-page dossier submitted by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad to Union Home Ministry in 2011, seeking a ban on Sanstha. But no action was taken as there developed a difference of opinion between the state government and the centre. (IPA Service)
