Malegaon is at it again!

Malegaon/Communalism/Pressure on police


Once it was the pride of Hindu Muslim unity, mutual respect and trust. Even the riots in the sixties and seventies did not dent into the harmonious relationship between the various sections of the society. But the 1980s and 1990s changed all that. With the rise of right wing BJP and its newly won respectability of its extreme view the town began to feel strain of being pulled in opposite directions. Since then Malegaon has become captive of communalists.

The police in Malegaon must be under tremendous strain. This is borne out by two recent incidents. Raj Thackeray’s arrest and the police action against those who were barricading the high way and forcing shutting down of shops on October 21-22 and the people pelting stones and manhandling the police in the aftermath of the bomb explosion on September 29 are dissimilar in nature. The people attacked the police in Bhiku chowk on the spur of the moment and several policemen were injured. But the police prevailed upon the situation and even opened fire on the riotous mob in which two persons died and many were injured. They even declared curfew but within minutes called it off. The police who described the blast as gas cylinder explosion when it was clearly bomb blast incensed the mob all the more because people had informed about the abandoned motorcycle(later found to be property of Poornachetanand or sadhvi Pragya) to the police more than an hour before the explosion. They ignored it.

The police did not make ignominious retreat (padta bhui) as is claimed by a Marathi daily columnist. If it were only that perhaps it would not be much, after all we have right to have personal view of events. But then the writer goes on to say that the police should not have thrashed the MNS activists in Hindu areas after how the cops were beaten up by the Muslim mob and after their abject retreat from the Muslim ghetto of Bhiku chowk. This is fine-tuning of communalism where it does not and should not exist. And exhorting to police to keep the avatar or appearance of god (permatmachi roop) is expecting too much. It could be instigating, rather.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena also boasts of having Muslims in it. However, the supporters of Raj Thackeray did not go into the old town where Muslims live. The Muslims kept themselves busy in the midst of their marriage season. They of course had read news paper report about how the Maharashtra police on October 13 arrested Lalit Kolhe, the Corporator from MNS in Jalgaon . About 16 swords were reportedly seized from his place at the height of the communal riots in Dhule and instances of arson in Jalgaon. So the old township in the east was astir with activities and business as usual.

In the other incident there was a press conference where a district level police officer in the aftermath of the bomb explosion had allegedly stared down at the Urdu reporters (two of whom had nailed the lie of the home minister that no one was injured in police firing) and remarked ominously that a bullet cost 150 rupees and he would not waste government money. Though the import was clear but it was not made out to be communalist expression. This is a tribute to the good sense which the people in Malegaon otherwise have. At the time of both bomb blasts there was no communal flare up and Hindus had helped in by donating blood and treating Muslim victims.

Thus the police otherwise generally believed by Muslims to be biased against them are also stigmatized by the majority community who look at them in the manner of the big brother. Look at what happens during religious processions how the routes and time are observed. They do not want to feel constrained by police regulations because of their surge in emotion and devotion. For two years Malegaon police have had tough time during the elephant god procession. Some who contravene the security norms are habitually extradited from the town but pressure builds up on the police. The show down between the members of the majority community and the police is of a different hue from the Muslim going berserk at perceived injustice or act of cruelty.

According to the influential group of the majority community the police arrested the protesters and took them back to the highway and handed over the protesters to the commandoes who beat them mercilessly. This they perceive is how the police settle old score. That of course is their grouse that their exuberance at the time of religious procession or political protests should be untrammeled by regulatory procedure of the police. As the irascible behaviour of the mob in the Bhiku chowk the disgruntlement of the majority is a chink in their armour. All this in addition to the whopping pressure on the cops to investigate the bomb explosions!