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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Face Of Accountability In 1992-1993 Riots

Abdul Sattar Suleman Mithaiwala – the soft-spoken yet steely owner of the popular sweetmeat shop and a bakery on Mohammed Ali Road, passed away in the wee hours of Monday.   ‘Sattarbhai’ – as he was known to all - was 79, and remained a friendly and familiar bearded figure in his tiny office behind the sweetmeat shop where he met visitors, lawyers, journalists and cops.   After all, he was one of the most identifiable faces connected with the dual riots that rocked Mumbai – first in Dec. 1992...

Face Of Accountability In 1992-1993 Riots

Abdul Sattar Suleman Mithaiwala – the soft-spoken yet steely owner of the popular sweetmeat shop and a bakery on Mohammed Ali Road, passed away in the wee hours of Monday.   ‘Sattarbhai’ – as he was known to all - was 79, and remained a friendly and familiar bearded figure in his tiny office behind the sweetmeat shop where he met visitors, lawyers, journalists and cops.   After all, he was one of the most identifiable faces connected with the dual riots that rocked Mumbai – first in Dec. 1992 and then in Jan. 1993 – in the aftermath of the razing of the contentious Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on Dec. 6, 1992 – a painful chapter that is now practically erased from history.   Sattarbhai’s entry into the riots case came when a massive tragedy took place in his Suleman Bakery on January 9, 1993 – changing his life forever.   Acting on a tip-off of alleged firing from the bakery premises, a police team led by then Joint Commissioner of Police R. D. Tyagi rushed there and surrounded the building. In the stormy operation that followed, at least eight unarmed men, mostly bakery workers living inside the bakery were killed, triggering national outrage.   Undaunted by the catastrophe taking place in his own premises, Sattar decided to pursue the case with dogged determination, silent courage and fighting all pressures.   The tragedy that defined his life happened during the second phase of the bloody communal riots that ravaged Mumbai after the Babri Mosque was felled.   Acting on reports of alleged firing from the bakery premises, a police team led by Tyagi stormed the building. In the operation that followed, eight unarmed men inside the bakery were killed, triggering national outrage.   The Suleman Bakery firing catapulted into one of the most high-profile, and controversial incidents of the 1992-1993 riots – though it was not the only one. The reason was the alleged perpetrators were policemen and the victims were ordinary unarmed civilians trapped inside their workplace.   At the time when the country’s commercial capital was engulfed in a communal conflagration for weeks, this case raised questions over bias, use of excessive force and willy-nilly state complicity. As Justice B. N. Srikrishna Commission later noted how the police version “did not inspire credence”, making the tragedy a symbol of institutional failure.   Public Memory As Mumbai bore the brunt of the riots with lumpens ruling the streets for weeks, the Suleman Bakery case became a rare one where accountability was directly sought from the police and the government – remaining etched in public memory since then.   Coupled with the Radhabai Chawl killings or police firing instances in different parts of the city, doubts were raised in public minds whether the violence was sporadic and spontaneous or was probably enabled and encouraged by those in power, as more than 900 deaths and 2000-plus injuries were recorded. Later, the city was scarred  by the serial blasts on March 12, 1993, with more deaths, destruction and social devastation.   Sattarbhai followed up his quest for justice diligently, but over time, it appeared to be fizzling out, 18 cops were booked of whom Tyagi and nine others were discharged in 2003 for lack of evidence, two died during the trial and only four still face the legal proceedings.   Even at the age of 75, Sattarbhai came to the court in a wheelchair, but later declared a ‘hostile witness’ as he could not remember certain crucial details of that night. Privately, he became cynical, even admitted to pressures from different quarters, first labelled as a suspect and then even blamed for the bakery incident itself – saying his confidence was shaken.   Bakery Carnage The Suleman Bakery firing occurred at the height of one of Mumbai’s darkest chapters – the bloody riots of December 1992–January 1993 riots - triggered by the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, and left over 900 people dead across the city.   After an uneasy lull in December 1992, tensions escalated again in early January 1993 following a series of killings in south Mumbai, including that of a Mathadi worker in Pydhonie, which were given a communal colour.   On January 9, police claimed that they got reports of some shady activities in the bakery and a team stormed there, leaving at least eight unarmed workers dead. After a massive furore, tough investigations, and a judicial probe by Justice B. N. Srikrishna Commission, raised haunting questions on the police role, and remained unanswered.   Over time, the Suleman Bakery case symbolised a deep communal chasm of that period, the long struggle for accountability in riot-related violence, particularly from the law-enforcers, and Sattarbhai stood as a solitary torchbearer of that valiant effort.

Unrest within Mahayuti

Updated: Jan 21, 2025

Mahayuti

Mumbai: The state administration on Sunday stalled the appointments of guardian ministers in Raigad and Nashik districts. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had cleared the appointments before he left for Davos in Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum on Saturday. They are believed to have been stalled on behest of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who heads the state in absence of the Chief Minister.


NCP’s Aditi Tatkare and BJP’s Girish Mahajan were entrusted with responsibilities of guardian minister for the Raigad and Nashik districts respectively, where Shiv Sena’s Bharat Gogawale and Dada Bhuse had staked claims. Gogawale is a first-time minister while, Bhuse had been the guardian minister of the district during previous government under Eknath Shinde.


Shiv Sena, NCP and BJP all the three constituents of Mahayuti have strong roots in both the districts. However, the Shiv Sena and the NCP had been particularly on loggerheads there. The Shiv Sena, which had been demanding the guardian minister’s post in Nashik district has managed to win only two assembly seats in the district where the NCP has Six and the BJP has Five MLAs. On the contrary, in Raigad the NCP has won only one seat while the Shiv Sena and the BJP both have Three MLAs each in the district.


Sunil Tatkare, MP from Raigad Lok Sabha constituency and the stat unit president of the NCP and father of Aditi Tatkare, had been the guardian minister of Raigad between 2004 and 2014. Gogawale had always been his political opponent before Tatkare joined the Mahayuti government under Ajit Pawar’s leadership in 2023. Gogawale claimed that all the Six Shiv Sena-BJP MLAs in the district had opined in his favour to be the guardian minister of the district and after the decision to appoint Aditi Tatkare was announced, his supporters resorted to violent protests. They burnt tyres in bid to stall traffic on highway in the district. Reacting to the developments, Tatkare said that the issue should be pondered over after CM Fadnavis returns from Davos on Saturday and settled amicably.


In Nashik Girish Mahajan had been the guardian minister of the district between 2014 and 2019 when Fadnavis was the Chief Minister.


The post of guardian minister doesn’t have any constitutional mandate and is considered to be a political appointment. Guardian ministers head the district planning and development councils (DPDC) that control the funds for development works being carried out in the particular district. This control wields much of political power to the minister in that district whereby spreading the party in the district becomes much easier. This is the reason why the grass root politicians seem to be very sensitive to such appointments.


While Gogawale and Bhuse are unhappy about not being appointed as guardian ministers, some others like NCP’s Hasan Mushrif and BJP’s Pankaja Munde are unhappy about not being appointed as guardian district in their home districts of Kolhapur and Beed respectively. DCM Shinde is learnt to have gone to his ancestral village Dare in Satara district after the decision and BJP’s firefighters Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Girish Mahajan are expected to meet him there to try finding a way out of the issue.

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