1994 Gowari stampede

Stampede

Every year, the winter session of Maharashtra state assembly, Vidhan Sabha, is held at Vidhan Bhavan, Nagpur. For quite some time, the Gowari community had been demanding Scheduled Tribe status to avail themselves of the benefits of reservations in government jobs and education. On 23 November 1994, Gowari protesters, led by Gowari Sanghatana, were trying to reach Vidhan Bhavan and present their demands to the state government. Nagpur police had earlier banned all protest marches during the winter session of the assembly. Nagpur Police stopped the march of 50,000 protesters at Nagpur's Vasantrao Naik College of Arts and Social Sciences (Morris college). However, no government official turned up to talk with protesters and resentment grew. Disturbances started amongst the crowd as they tried to break the police barricades. Police gave out repeated warnings to maintain order but the situation was getting out of control. Chief Minister Sharad Pawar had already flown back to Mumbai after concluding the day's session. At 5:30 pm, a car with a red light atop it arrived and protesters at the front rushed towards it. They assumed some minister had arrived to take up their petition. However, police feared trouble and started wielding batons to push back the protesters. This initially caused them to retreat, but word of the police attack spread, causing a panic, with protesters trying to run away. Women along with children who were part of the protest march got caught in the midst of the chaos. They were trampled and asphyxiated under the feet of running protesters. In all, 114 people lost their lives in the tragedy. Autopsies conducted on the victims concluded that their deaths were caused by traumatic asphyxia. They were the result of chest compression and obstruction of the respiratory system.

Enquiry

Soon after the tragedy, the Maharashtra government appointed a one-man commission - Justice S S Dani - to investigate the causes of the tragedy. Meanwhile, the opposition Bhartiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena coalition took immediate political advantage of this tragedy and it became one of the factors for the Indian National Congress losing the state elections of 1995. After many extensions, the Dani Commission finally tabled its report in March 1998 and found nobody responsible.{{cite web |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19990305/ipo05012.html Chief Minister Manohar Joshi was quoted as saying "Any one of them going and talking to the protesters could have averted the tragedy".{{cite web |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/1998/98dec31/nation.htm#3|title=Ruckus over Dani report

Current situation

After coming to power, the Bhartiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena-led government had announced a Special Backward Caste (SBC) category for 47 such communities with 2 percent reservations in education and government jobs. However, the Supreme Court of India ruling that reservation quotas cannot exceed 50 percent has created legal problems for SBC quotas. Political efforts to assimilate 2 percent SBC under already existing scheduled tribe or other backward caste (OBC) quotas have faced tough opposition from their respective legislators' lobby. After losing the 2004 Maharashtra state assembly elections, the BJP seems to have lost interest in Gowari incident.{{cite web |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19991125/ige25030.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020152043/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2007-11-24/nagpur/27980717_1_gowaris-suicide-note-farmer |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-10-20

A monument has been built in central Nagpur to commemorate those who died in this tragedy. Also, the flyover in Sitabuldi has been named Aadivasi Gowari Shahid flyover.

References

References

1. (1994-11-25). "State Orders Probe After Stampede Kills 114". www.highbeam.com.
2. (1998-12-30). "Inquiry clears Pawar of blame for Gowari tragedy".
3. (1998-12-26). "Govt implicating me in Dani report: Pawar".