Maharashtra minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said violence in his state over posters and social media posts on Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb and 18th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan was part of the toolkit of some parties who want to stall development.
BJP often accuses opposition parties of following a list of steps, or toolkit, to fan a protest digitally and on the ground for political gains. Kolhapur in western Maharashtra saw violent protests from right wing outfits on Wednesday over some persons keeping an image of Tipu Sultan and an offensive audio message as their social media statues, leading to the arrest of 36 persons so far.
These incidents were from the toolkit of some political parties as part of a conspiracy. These parties know they cannot come to power on the strength of developmental politics, he told reporters, adding such parties routinely glorified Aurangzeb for vote-bank politics. Hitting back at Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut’s allegation that the violence was the result of an intelligence failure, Mungantiwar said Aurangzeb’s supporters find a ray of hope in the former, adding that some people take birth to speak ill.