Beed Sarpanch Murder: A murder in Beed

‘Dilwalon Ke Dil Ka Qarar Lootnemain Aayi Hoon Up, Bihar Lootne ..’

The lyrics of the Superhit song of the 1999 ‘Shool’ movie was once a metaphor for the criminalized policy of the Hindi heart. At a time when the criminal nexo-political was institutionalized in large strips of the Indogeical Plains, the song (shown in the obscene dance movements of Shilpa Shetty) mockingly referred to the policy of ‘effective and carries’ of the time. Up-Bihar politicians cried badly when they were caricatured as gangsters, while the rest of the country seemed relieved that their policy was somehow less rude.

A quarter of a century later, it is evident that rot is no longer limited to some states. Last week, viral videos showed how in a village in the Beed district of Maharashtra, the defendant hit a Sarpanch with bars, he tortured him, even urinating in his body before killing him. The horrible murder was captured in the chamber, almost as if the defendant felt sufficiently emboldened to show his influence to the audience. It is not surprising that the main accused in a case that has shocked Maharashtra is a key assistant of the State Minister, Dhananjay Munde. The murder took place in early December. The videos have only emerged, the public protest finally forced the minister to resign.

However, a late resignation cannot mask the reality of how politics has become a criminal company in many parts of the country. According to the reports, the defendants in this case were executing an extortion racket, demanding money from a Mumbai -based wind company that had invested in the region. When the brave Sarpanch tried to intervene and stop the offer of extortion, it was “eliminated.” Could the accused have acted with such impunity unless they had the sponsorship of the minister? Was the minister controlled them or the gang was operating like an autonomous outfit?

Let’s establish the context. Beed is one of Maharashtra’s most backward regions and the country. A marathwada belt prone to drought, Beed provides approximately 70 percent of agricultural work to the most prosperous sugar heart in southern Maharashtra. Several families in Beed migrate to other regions in search of work, especially during the seating and harvesting season. Limited income sources have thrown a vicious circle of debt and poverty from which Beed has not been able to free himself. The crime becomes a lucrative option for many unemployed young people: a senior journalist from neighboring Aurengabad tells me that Beed has witnessed many murders of such many “politicians” in recent years.

During the last three decades, Beed’s policy has been controlled by the Mundo family. The family fief was built by Gopinath Munde, an ambitious BJP leader with strong links with the RSS. The steep son of Sena Mundo belonged to the Vanjari community, an OBC population that was in direct competence with the most politically influential marathas. Break of the most urban Pamod Mahajan, another Unconditional BJP leader of Maharashtra, Mundo gradually settled as the massive face of the party, and finally became the Deputy Minister Vice Minister of Maharashtra in 1995 in a coalition government of BJP-Shiv Sena coalition. He was appointed Minister of the Union in the first Narendra Modi government in 2014, only to die in a tragic car accident just weeks after moving to Delhi.

The sudden death of the BJP leader caused a grass battle: his nephew Dhananjay Mundo against his daughter Pankaja. The 49 -year -old nephew once was a president of the state of BJP Yuva Morcha who resigned from the game in 2013, joined the NCP and faced his cousin Pankaja of Parli’s family bastion in Beed. Where his career had begun in the shadow of his uncle, he now found refuge in the hug of the leader of the PNC Sharad Pawar. The controversies swirled around them, including a violation complaint in 2021. With the characteristic arrogance, Mundo said he was in a relationship with the plaintiff’s sister and had two children of her. The violation load did not stick and Mundo skillfully changed the sides with Ajit Pawar in 2023 to be part of the Mahayuti government. This time, the position of atrocious murder has forced Mundo to resign: the main defendant in the murder of Sarpanch, Valmik Karad, has administered the district of the minister for years and, according to the reports, the duo share common commercial interests.

In a sense, Mundo’s case typifies the changing nature of Maharashtra’s policy. Where once the State is proud of its reformist zeal, its policy is now defined by a totally immoral ecosystem of “power at all costs.” Cash, crime and corruption under the veil of caste policy and community identity have created a toxic mixture, one in which there is a total ideological bankruptcy and only a desire for self -granding. Where Gopinath Munde arrived through Sangh Parivar’s uterus and remained committed to the party, his nephew, as many contemporary Maharashtra politicians, has benefited from the opportunistic policy of divisions and defections that the State Party system has destroyed. Is it a surprise that those associated with Dhananjay Munde really thought they could get out of chamber murder? After all, when political commitment and depravity are the name of the game, who will draw the red lines of acceptable behavior?

That is why the ‘maha’ crime ‘must become another attention call that Maharashtra and, in fact, the country needs so desperately. A ‘magnetic maharashtra’ or a ‘Vksit Bharat’ can hardly be built on the lumpenized politics building. Unfortunately, the media cheerleaders are taken so much with well -yanned slogans that the dirt that is under the brightness of a ‘5 billion economy of 5 billion’ is barely remarkable. Beed is that the dirty belly, a district trapped in poverty, crime, power policy and a broken police machinery. Like Beed, there are many other corners of India where local mafias and their political bosses still call shots. In urban centers, white collar crime has a more sophisticated advantage. In Beed’s dust bowl, the weapon calls the shots.

That is why, instead of celebrating elegant investment summits in five -star hotels, perhaps our governments should first hold law meetings and order at each headquarters in the district where an unequivocal message is delivered that there will be zero tolerance for the offenders of the law, regardless of their political influence. Otherwise, places like Beed will continue to fall sinisterly from the map.

Post-Script: On a morning walk along Mumbai’s marine management, I met a retired IAS officer who said he was not surprised by what had happened in Beed. “The chickens have returned home to be prostrated. Previously, politicians flirted with criminals. Now criminals have simply taken care of politics!

(Rajdeep Sardesai is a senior journalist and author whose last book is 2024: the choice that surprised India)

(The opinions expressed in this opinion article are those of the author)