No lessons learned from Delhi riots
There have been many live news reports of goons roaming the streets of Delhi, carrying rods, sticks and stones and even a pistol, with police as bystanders or just not present. Several journalists were also beaten up in the line of duty, with one ending up in hospital with a gunshot wound. There were several reports of goons snatching mobiles of those trying to film them
It is often the aftermath of violence that is horrifying - it reveals the innards of a hearth burnt, a home destroyed, a life shattered and the mob mentality. The violence that erupted in February in Delhi after an incendiary statement by a local BJP leader had all these ingredients.
Kapil Mishra had urged people through Twitter to gather and “prevent another Shaheen Bagh” protest from taking place near the Jaffrabad Metro Station in northeast Delhi. Clashes broke out soon after, between supporters and critics of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), with stone-pelting from both sides.
And, for the next four days, it was mayhem on Delhi’s streets as the mob, by all accounts from the Hindu community, ran amok. Burnt and mangled vehicles and the debris of rioting told a heart-wrenching story. But it was only after violence stopped that the real picture appeared - as many as 52 bodies found, several of them in drains, over 250 injured, many admitted to hospital with gunshot wounds, hundreds of vehicles torched, scores of houses burnt and dozens of shops gutted. Two mosques were desecrated and a saffron flag was planted on one of them. Among those killed was an 85year-old woman, who was burnt alive. The rest were men, most of them in their twenties and thirties. Some of the oncebustling areas resembled ghost towns, as people were forced to flee from their homes in the face of rampaging mobs.
Many say the the dance of death on the streets of Delhi brought back memories of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots - similar burning of houses, looting of shops, killing of people, targeting of members of a particular community, and an indifferent police force looking the other way. Several chilling and explicit accounts of those four days, when northeast Delhi turned into a killing field, are emerging. The family members of those killed are recounting unsettling accounts of witnessing their loved ones being burnt, shot, bludgeoned or hacked to death.
Those who went on the rampage are also recalling, many with pride, how they put to death members of another community and dumped their bodies in a sewage canal running by.
It is these bloodcurdling tales that force us to rethink that the picture is not only horrifying but even deadlier as we await with eerie silence the appearance of more skeletons from canals.
In all of this the role of Delhi Police is repugnant, to say the least. And here the similarities begin with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. In fact, police records show no PCR (police control room) calls of rioting received during those four days even though many residents have said that they made urgent calls to police when they saw the mobs approaching menacingly towards their homes and shops. Naresh Gujral, MP of key NDA constituent, the Akali Dal, has claimed that he personally called up police on 100 to rescue a group of 16 people trapped in riot-hit northeast Delhi, but police didn’t take any action.
“Delhi Police’s inaction towards protecting the life and property of minorities in the national capital is reminiscent of what happened during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots,” he said in his letter to Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik, who has since been replaced.
There have been many live news reports of goons roaming the streets of Delhi, carrying rods, sticks and stones and even a pistol, with police as bystanders or just not present. Several journalists were also beaten up in the line of duty, with one ending up in hospital with a gunshot wound. There were several reports of goons snatching mobiles of those trying to film them.
A video on YouTube shows a person instigating people in the name of Hindutva to pick up stones from a pile lying underneath a metro bridge, One by one they start doing so, charging forward and throwing those at the other group, with policemen as mute spectators There are also several videos of mobs vandalising shops. The Opposition has expressed outrage over the “indifferent and detached attitude” of the police during the rioting.
“This communal riot happened with full planning and preparation,” says AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, as he cites many videos that show police not acting for two days.
Even the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land, has castigated the Delhi Police for its lack of professionalism in handling the violence and, at the same time, questioned the central government for not taking steps to allow police to work professionally.(IFS)