Quell the rise of communal tension

For the third time in about a month, Rajasthan witnessed communal tension late on Monday night when groups of people from Hindu and Muslim communities clashed in a neighbourhood in Jodhpur. Police say the violence was triggered by a dispute over raising religious flags in the Jalori Gate area ahead of Eid celebrations, prompting authorities to suspend internet services and clamp curfew till May 4. Four police personnel were injured while trying to disperse the stone-pelting mob in Jodhpur, which is also the home town of chief minister Ashok Gehlot. After a brief interlude, fresh clashes were reported again on Tuesday after namaz at local Eidgah and some private vehicles were damaged. Street battles continued till noon in the city.

The clashes, which brought back memories of similar violence in the state’s Karauli town last month, followed a predictable pattern of provocation by a small group of miscreants, and an inability by the local administration to either pre-emptively tighten security procedures before a festival, or act quickly to put out the communal fire. To be sure, sectarian tensions have been simmering in various parts of the country in recent weeks, and in many cases, the authorities have been found wanting in their response to establish communal amity. What is required is sure-footed and impartial decisionmaking to end any such misadventures.

It should escape no one’s attention that the spurt in communal violence in Rajasthan comes a year before crucial assembly polls in the state. The relatively low-intensity nature of the violence should not dissuade authorities from going after miscreants. Nor should political loyalties hold sway over the investigation. Political parties, too, must ensure that electioneering doesn’t descend into fanning communal passions. It is no one’s interest, and definitely not the country’s, to see communal conflagrations becoming a part of India’s politics.