‘Mantri mandal’ a code for hit list?: Marathi editor latest to receive threat after election 

Ram Puniyani, Nikhil Wagle and now Rahi Bhide have been threatened in quick succession after the general election. All three are known for being critics of bigotry and obscurantism. An alarmed Devendra Fadnavis government, unwilling to take any risk ahead of the assembly election, has been quick to ensure security and order an investigation by the ATS.

The threat to Rahi Bhide has been the most intriguing. Bhide, the first woman editor of a Marathi newspaper has broken many glass ceilings over the years. She was a well recognised columnist across Maharashtra writing for Marathi Lokmat. She quit the job to take up her current position of editor at another well read newspaper, Punyanagari, where she continues writing her popular, hard hitting columns besides editing the newspaper and leading a large team of editorial employees across Maharashtra.

Bhide has also been a popular face on Marathi television, with anchors seeking out her opinion for their crystal clear and unambiguous analyses and the 2019 elections were no exception. When BJP candidate from Bhopal Pragya Thakur described Nathuram Godse as a desh bhakt and Narendra Modi said he would never forgive her from his heart, Bhide was unimpressed.

“What is the use of not forgiving her from his heart when he has already legally paved her way for entry into Parliament?” she asked tartly on one Marathi channel.

Bhide remains undaunted even after she received a suspicious visitor at her office. This man, sporting a tilak and carrying what seemed like a gun or a knife wrapped in a handkerchief, was seen loitering outside her cabin for a long while before her assistant asked him what or who he had come for.

She was in conference with reporters – and the visitor broke into a sweat even in the air-conditioned room upon seeing them, which is what raised her suspicion about the man. In addition, he was holding the wrapped up knife or gun against his waist while insisting that she accompany him to meet a “Purandare” who had sent for her.

That is where Bhide’s suspicions were aroused because he implied he was referring to noted balladeer Babasaheb Purandare, 97, a resident of Pune.

She refused more than once whereupon the man blurted out “You must come with me. Because we have decided to induct you and Nikhil Wagle into the Mantri Mandal (cabinet).”

Bhide burst into laughter and as the man slunk away, she got on the phone to both Babasaheb Purandare and Nikhil Wagle, who has also received threats from the Sanatan Sanstha, which has recently been implicated in the murders of journalist Gauri Lankesh and rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.

While Purandare denied he had sent anyone to fetch her, Wagle sounded the alarm bells and asked her to register a police complaint. At first the police were hesitant as she had not really been intimidated. But after she apprised Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) launched a manhunt for the suspicious character, relying on CCTV footage from the newspaper’s office.

The key to the intriguing threat is the use of the word “mantri mandal”. While Bhide was oblivious to its meaning and laughed it off, chief minister Fadnavis looked grim at the mention for he possibly understood what it meant.

Bhide was later told by police that it could mean she and Wagle had been included in a hit list – and the man who tried to kidnap her was either an amateur or was on a recce when, seeing others with Bhide in her office, he beat a hasty retreat.

Bhide is among the most popular and well-read print journalists in Maharashtra, besides being the first woman and first Dalit working journalist to reach the positions she has. An attack on her could unleash a major unrest against his government, six months before the Maharashtra assembly elections due in October this year, something which Fadnavis simply cannot afford in a state which still stands with the Phule-Shahu-Ambedkar ethos despite voting for the BJP.

The three reformists (Jyotiba Phule, Shahu Maharaj and BR Ambedkar) took on Hindu orthodoxy in no uncertain terms and Bhide represents them in all her writings and opinions. “I am not going to step back from my views. I am not going to be cowed down by the bigots,” she says.

Brave words. But that is the spirit of Phule, Shahu and Ambedkar that the Sanatanis have been systematically trying to destroy for a long time now.