Back from the brink

As the nation watched Vadodara burn, there was very real trepidation that Gujarat would slip back to the atavistic 2002 moment. That this did not happen was largely thanks to some timely interventions — by both the Centre and Gujarat’s chief minister. In 2002 we learnt a bitter lesson from what the governments — in the state and at the Centre — did not do. In 2006 we can learn from what both governments did do. To that extent Vadodara presents a textbook case of how to prevent a bad riot situation from turning worse.

The most important realisation by the chief minister was that these riots could damage him very badly politically, that it was in his interest to quell them at the earliest. The Centre, for its part, also realised that the situation needed quick and effective action rather than finger-pointing and name-calling. The usual recriminations were thankfully therefore much less in evidence this time and there was a joint ownership of the actions taken. The Gujarat government did not resist the prompt deployment of the army and in fact justified its presence by stating that it had wanted such reinforcements because a part of its own forces had been sent out for electoral duties. Again, the CM this time visited Vadodara even while it was burning, met victims from both the Hindu and Muslim communities and personally appealed for peace. That the Centre, too, was alert to the situation was made patent by timely statements. It eschewed the temptation to up the ante, or put the Gujarat government on the defensive. These initiatives brought a sense of confidence to those who felt particularly threatened in the face of rampaging mobs.

But Vadodara also demonstrated that things have not changed that much in “Vibrant Gujarat”. The local administration remains shockingly and dangerously insensitive to the sentiments of local communities. The very fact that mob violence continues to persist means that the state government has singularly failed to single out and punish past practitioners of such barbarism. Finally, it is quite clear that the police in Gujarat is the problem, not the solution. The manner in which police personnel responded to the Vadodara riots is a blot on the government. But this is hardly surprising in a state where police officials who had abysmally failed to control riots are elevated to the post of director general of police.