Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday told the state Assembly that the violence in Nagpur looks like a “premeditated conspiracy” because the mob targeted “specific houses, establishments”.
Violence erupted in central Nagpur on Monday evening, with stones hurled at police amid rumours that the holy book of a community was burnt during an agitation by a right-wing body for the removal of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's tomb in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, officials earlier said.
Parts of the city are still under curfew.
Ambadas Danve, leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, blamed Fadnavis, who is also an MLA from Nagpur, and the state government.
"I am clearly stating that the Maharashtra government and state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the home department portfolio, are behind the Nagpur violence,"
Danve said in a video statement on Monday night.
The CM holds the home department portfolio but does not get to know about the possible eruption of violence in his city, the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader said.
"This government has made efforts for the last one month to stoke Hindu-Muslim violence in the state. Such violence would disrupt the daily life of Hindus as well as Muslims, but [the government] wants to reap political benefits out of it. The BJP and its associated organisations are trying to disrupt the harmony in the state," he alleged.
More than 50 persons have been taken into custody and five FIRs registered in connection with the violence, city police commissioner Ravinder Singal said on Tuesday.
District guardian minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said 34 police personnel and five other persons suffered injuries in the violence and 45 vehicles were vandalised.
He appealed to members of all communities to maintain peace in the city and not support any anti-social elements.
Bawankule said the government was monitoring social media accounts to track those spreading rumours. The government was also finding out who spread rumours on Monday, which led to the violence, the minister said.
"The government's stand is that the Hindu and Muslim communities has always lived together in harmony, and such an incident never happened before [in Nagpur]," he told reporters at Nagpur airport.
Earlier, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde said those still praising Aurangzeb are "traitors".
“Aurangzeb came to seize Maharashtra, but he faced the divine power of Shivaji Maharaj. Those who still sing his praises are nothing but traitors," Shinde said.
Last week, Solapur rural police booked 13 persons, including five minors, for glorifying the Mughal emperor on social media.
“The controversy over Aurangzeb is not new — it has existed in some form ever since colonial rule,” Kingshuk Chatterjee, professor in the Department of History at Calcutta University, told The Telegraph Online.
According to Chatterjee, this framing of Aurangzeb as rigid and intolerant was carried forward into the nationalist movement of 1947 and has since been reinforced in the political discourse. Aurungzeb is seen as a dogmatic person who imposed religious taxes and observed Islamic rituals stringently.
Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar was earlier known as Aurangabad, after Aurangzeb. It was renamed in 2023 when the BJP and the Shiv Sena (the Eknath Shinde faction) were in power in Maharashtra.
Chhaava, the latest Bollywood movie on Shivaji’s son Sambhaji’s resistance against the Mughals starring Vicky Kaushal, has had an impact on the Aurangzeb debate.
On Monday, a PTI report quoted Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane as saying that the true history is being conveyed to future generations through the movie Chhaava.
"Aurangzeb demanded that Sambhaji Maharaj (Shivaji Maharaj's son) convert to Islam. Those who argue that their battle (led by the father-son duo) was not against Islam, how do they explain this? If it wasn't a fight for religion then what kind of war was it?" he asked.
Rane said the calls by Hindutva organisations regarding Aurangzeb's tomb are significant.
Author Amish Tripathi was moved by the movie and asked for the renaming of all places bearing the tag of Aurangzeb to Sambhaji.
Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi had questioned the portrayal of Aurangzeb in Chhaava. His comments sparked a backlash, with the ruling Mahayuti leaders accusing him of disrespecting two of Maharashtra’s most revered figures, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his son Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj.
“I have said what historians and writers have claimed about Aurangzeb Rahmatullah Ali,” Azmi said when his comments sparked a furore. “I have not made any derogatory comments about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj or Sambhaji Maharaj. But still, if anyone has been hurt by my statement, then I take back my words.”
He was barred from the entire legislative session.
Azmi called it an “injustice.” But last week, he paid tributes to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj on his death anniversary hailing him as a valiant warrior.