Gopinath Munde's reliance on his nephew Dhananjay Munde and his domestic worker-turned-aide Valmik Karad grew significantly over time. By the time Munde realized the extent of their brutal excesses, it was already too late. In an attempt to counterbalance their growing influence, he introduced his daughter Pankaja Munde into politics. However, by then, Dhananjay and Valmik had become so emboldened that they openly challenged Gopinath’s authority in the district.

Santosh Deshmukh, the Sarpanch of Massajog village in Kej taluka of Beed district, was murdered on December 9, 2024. He was abducted and brutally tortured to death for opposing an extortion case. Valmik Karad and his fellow goons from Parli have been arrested in that case. Valmik and his gang of goons are known to be close associates of the state's Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection of Maharashtra, Dhananjay Munde. As a result, there have been demands for Dhananjay Munde’s resignation from his ministerial post. However, as of January 25, when this edition went to print, he has neither submitted his resignation nor been removed from his position.

In fact, in the two months since the government came to power with an unprecedented majority, this issue has been at the center of public debate. Yet, all three parties in the Mahayuti government have remained silent. In the first two weeks following the murder, every effort had been made to suppress the matter. Mahayuti However, over the next month, the issue kept on escalating. During the state assembly session, BJP MLA from Beed district’s Ashti taluka, Suresh Dhas, persistently kept raising the matter. Apart from that, many political leaders and activists have created immense pressure. Social media and television channels have seized this opportunity to air the dirty laundry of Dhananjay and Valmik. Numerous other court cases involving Valmik, Dhananjay, and their associates have surfaced in the last few weeks. Every day, new accounts emerge detailing how Valmik and his various gangs have wreaked havoc in Beed district for years. The list of crimes includes extortion, assaults, looting, threats, land grabbing, misappropriation of government scheme funds, and diverting welfare benefits to fake identities. Such large-scale wrong-would have not been possible without the strategic and ruthless abuse of police and government machinery.  The matter has escalated to such an extreme that the situation in Beed district is now being compared to Bihar, which has long been infamous for extreme and unruly disregard for law. Of course, it would be unfair to tarnish an entire district due to the actions of a few individuals. At the same time, tensions between the two dominant communities — Marathas and Vanjaris — are being fueled, but linking such criminal activities to any particular caste is inherently wrong.

Against this backdrop, it is essential to examine both the actions and misdeeds of Valmik Karad and Dhananjay Munde. After all, Pankaja Munde herself recently stated in their presence that “Dhananjay doesn’t move a leaf without Valmik,” highlighting their deep association. Clearly, these two are symbols of a larger corrupt tendency — one that operates in varying degrees across every district and taluka of the state. Understanding how the Valmik-Dhananjay nexus emerged and expanded will help uncover the workings of similar corrupt networks elsewhere. Once their rise to power is deciphered, it will become easier to expose and dismantle such criminal-political alliances in other regions.

Valmik Karad and Dhananjay Munde’s rise and expansion can be traced back to the tenure of the late BJP leader Gopinath Munde. After 1985, the BJP began promoting leadership from rural areas, the Bahujan community, and various OBC castes and groups. During this period, Gopinath Munde emerged as a prominent figure in Maharashtra. Over the next three decades, he steadily gained influence in state politics, eventually becoming BJP’s most powerful leader in Maharashtra, with strong backing from his brother-in-law, Pramod Mahajan, at the national level. At that time, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance was active, with BJP playing the role of the "junior partner", to Shiv Sena, the more dominant force in Maharashtra. To reshape its image,

BJP seemingly entrusted Munde with full control over the party's affairs in Maharashtra. Beed district, in particular, was as if a gift offered to him on a silver platter. Munde served as BJP’s state president for five years after 1985, then as Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP government for another five years. He later spent a decade as the Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra and, after 2009, five years as BJP’s Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha. In his early days, Munde was seen as a young, dynamic leader. At a time when even seasoned politicians hesitated to challenge Sharad Pawar, Munde took him head-on, earning admiration across different sections of society. His influence grew tremendously. Like all political leaders, he initiated some commendable projects early on, but his tenure was also marked by inefficiency, corruption, lawlessness, and the promotion — directly or indirectly — of caste-based identities, both real and fabricated. Munde’s political career provided a significant boost to Bahujan politics, which found strong support among the people of Beed district and the OBC community.

At the time, Gopinath Munde operated on four different levels—as a BJP leader in Maharashtra, an OBC leader, a leader of the Marathwada region, and a leader of Beed district. However, in Beed, Ahmednagar, and the surrounding districts, he did not shy away from his identity as a leader of the Vanjari community. In the Vanjari community, Bhagwan Baba and Vaman Bhau are revered as saints. On the political front, Babanrao Dhakne had been a leader for some time, but the support that Munde received from the community was unparalleled. It was inevitable that those who surrounded such a powerful leader — both minor and major figures — would misuse their influence. And naturally, Munde himself wielded these lawless leaders as tools to impose his political authority and to rise up in BJP ranks.. Over time, misplaced caste pride, false identity politics, and stubborn arrogance took root, almost unnoticed. For the Vanjari community, after the two saints, Munde came to be regarded as a third great leader, almost a saint-like figure. The common people, along with the educated class of the community, played a role in elevating his stature to an almost mythical level. Of course, such patterns have existed across eras, across castes, and with leaders of varying stature in different districts—this was not an extraordinary phenomenon. However, Munde consistently turned a blind eye towards various wrongdoings for his own political gain. As a result, many of his supporters began indulging in unchecked self-promotion, open corruption, and outright hooliganism under his name. Instead of suppressing these excesses, Munde continued to encourage such behaviour, offering implicit approval. It was through this very process that Dhananjay Munde and Valmik Karad emerged as his close enforcers — as his left and right hands.

Gopinath Munde's reliance on his nephew Dhananjay Munde and his domestic worker-turned-aide Valmik Karad grew significantly over time. By the time Munde realized the extent of their brutal excesses, it was already too late. In an attempt to counterbalance their growing influence, he introduced his daughter Pankaja Munde into politics. However, by then, Dhananjay and Valmik had become so emboldened that they openly challenged Gopinath’s authority in the district. As a last resort, Gopinath Munde tried to pacify Dhananjay by securing him a seat in the Legislative Council. However, by then, Dhananjay’s ambitions had grown so much that he aligned himself with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the very party that was Gopinath Munde’s staunchest rival. In fact, while Munde was still alive, Dhananjay defected from the BJP and joined the NCP. Just two years later, in May 2014, Gopinath Munde’s sudden demise left Beed district open for Dhananjay and Valmik to seize unchecked control. Although Pankaja Munde defeated Dhananjay in the Parli Assembly election, it had little effect on the fear and influence that Dhananjay and Valmik had established. Their growing dominance was further fueled and legitimized by the backing of Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar, the uncle-nephew duo of the NCP.

After defeating Dhananjay Munde in the 2014 elections and becoming a minister, Pankaja Munde gained prominence in Maharashtra politics. However, to counter her rise, the NCP strategically elevated Dhananjay by appointing him as the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council. This raises a crucial question: On what merit did Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar award Dhananjay, who had joined the party just two years earlier, such a significant position? Following this, when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was formed, Dhananjay Munde was handed the Social Justice Ministry. Later, when Ajit Pawar broke away from Sharad Pawar and joined the Mahayuti government, Dhananjay was rewarded yet again—this time with the Agriculture Ministry. So, over the entire decade after 2014, Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar played the most significant role in empowering Dhananjay Munde. Consequently, a large share of the blame for the wrongdoings carried out under Dhananjay’s name—especially by Valmik Karad—falls on Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar. Whether Sharad Pawar supported Dhananjay willingly, unwillingly, or involuntarily, the fact remains that it happened!

In the decade following 2014, another key figure who played a significant role in strengthening Dhananjay Munde was BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis. Both Devendra and Dhananjay were young leaders who had risen within the BJP around the same time. When Dhananjay defected to the NCP due to differences with Gopinath Munde, Fadnavis saw an advantage in having an ally within the Opposition. During Fadnavis' tenure as Chief Minister, Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar strategically positioned Dhananjay in the Legislative Council, ensuring their own political convenience. Their primary objective was likely to secure their own interests and that of their party, rather than merely countering Pankaja Munde or projecting Dhananjay as a young leader from Beed. To add to this, Pankaja, after Gopinath's death, nurtured the illusion that Beed district and the Vanjari community were a fiefdom inherited from her father. This illusion fueled her growing arrogance; she started daydreaming of becoming the Chief Minister of the state and started making dramatic speeches and belittling her own supporters. As a result, her defeat to Dhananjay in the 2019 Assembly elections became inevitable. Of course, Fadnavis secretly helped Dhananjay defeat Pankaja. Once Pankaja was eliminated from the electoral scene, Dhananjay found himself in a unique position as a bridge between Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis. In November 2019, when Ajit Pawar’s first rebellion led to the short-lived four-day BJP-NCP government, Dhananjay played a crucial role in facilitating negotiations between Ajit and Devendra. In May 2023, during Ajit’s successful defection to the Mahayuti government, Dhananjay once again acted as the key intermediary between the two factions. Additionally, Dhananjay provided significant support to Ajit Pawar in his rebellion against his uncle. Sharad Pawar himself acknowledged this during a Lok Sabha election interview, stating, "I will no longer speak about Dhananjay. I know exactly how and in which cases he was rescued." In fact, Sharad Pawar had presented evidence of Dhananjay Munde's misdeeds. Not only that, it was, in essence, an indirect admission that he had even facilitated them, directly or indirectly.

Looking at the political landscape of the past two decades, it becomes evident why in the past month and a half, despite the massive uproar across the state over the Santosh Deshmukh murder case, neither Ajit Pawar nor Devendra Fadnavis had the courage to remove Dhananjay Munde from the cabinet. The second Deputy Chief Minister, Eknath Shinde, has remained completely silent, which is hardly surprising. Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress, and NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) have failed to mount strong opposition, their voices being weak. The only ray of hope in this entire situation is Suresh Dhas, a BJP MLA from Beed district. Despite being from the ruling party, he has been relentlessly exposing the misdeeds of Dhananjay and Valmik Karad, which is remarkable. It is highly likely that he has Devendra Fadnavis' covert backing. This could be a move to completely tarnish Dhananjay’s reputation before ultimately forcing him out. Of course, he has no reason to worry about how much damage is being done to the state in this process.

However, considering all these circumstances, how did Dhananjay and Valmik come to be? The most responsibility for this falls on Gopinath Munde, followed by Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar, and then, of course, on Devendra Fadnavis. Had it not been for their strong support, Dhananjay and Valmik, under his protection, would not have dared to commit so many misdeeds in Beed district. This means the situation of Beed would not have been worse than Bihar. Now, since the late Gopinath Munde is no longer alive, it is not possible to raise questions about him. However, if responsibility for the sins committed by Valmik is to be accepted and resignations are to be demanded, then it should not be only Dhananjay’s resignation; resignations should also come from Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar, and Devendra Fadnavis. But to take such responsibility, one must have a sense of morality. Do their supporters have the courage to claim that these four individuals uphold such moral values? In the Puranas, Valya’s family refused to share the responsibility for his sins. It’s likely that even today, none of the other four to share the burden of the sins of this Valmik of Beed district?

- Editor, Sadhana
kartavyasadhana@gmail.com

Article originally published in Marathi (वाल्मिकच्या पापात वाटेकरी कोण?) as the Editorial of Weekly Sadhana Issue dated 1-Feb-2025. You can read it here. 
(Translated by Rahee Dahake)

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