Why are there photos of Phule and Ambedkar in your house, but no photos of gods?" A policeman densely asked this Orwellian question of K Pavana, daughter of Varavara Rao, one of the five persons placed under house arrest by the Pune Police as part of the case into the violence during the Elgaar Parishad of December 31, 2017. The other four suspects: Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai; Sudha Bharadwaj in Faridabad; and Gautam Navlakha in Delhi. Not arrested: Sambhaji Bhide's gang that, by all accounts, began the violence. Possibly because their houses contain photos of gods, and not of Dalit icons.

Newspapers became a word-image dichotomy of sinister descriptions of the accused's alleged steering of a Maoist conspiracy to overthrow the State, contrasted with news photos of the five most physically non-threatening Indians you could possibly imagine. These five middle-class uncles and aunties are said to be the top of a pyramid of left-wing extremism. Cretinous news anchors imagined this pyramid's apex's "deep connections" to insurgents in Jammu and Kashmir, proving their unfamiliarity with either Jharkhand or J&K. Ironically, the right-wing Internet is filled with vitriol for Sudha Bharadwaj et al. She is their opposite, having given up a cushy life in America to work for society's marginalised, unlike those who worship H1-B more than they worship photos of gods.