MUMBAI, 4 December 2006 — The Congress party-led Democratic Front government in Maharashtra is facing political turbulence and drawing fire for the massacre of four Dalit (low caste Hindus) members of a family in Bhandara recently, and the unrest in the state over the desecration of a bust of Dalit hero Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar in Kanpur. State Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh distancing himself from Nationalist Congress Party Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R.R. Patil, attributed all the law and order incidents as problems of the home department.
Responding to a question on the lone survivor of the massacred Dalit family Bhaiyalal Bhotmange who had met Congress President Sonia Gandhi, after which Sonia had given a dressing down to Deshmukh, the chief minister said that the matter related to the home department which is headed by R.R. Patil of the NCP, and that adequate action had been taken by the home department, after the surviving member of the family had met Patil.
“All those named as accused have been arrested. The Kherlanji case has been handed over to the CBI and the government has given the Republican Party of India leaders a patient hearing,” he said, after a meeting of Congress leaders at Sahyadri. Deshmukh denied that Sonia was unhappy with the way his government had handled the situation.
