Family goons

This is not for the first time in the last few days that the hidden hand of the land mafia has made itself felt inGujarat. Ahmedabad8217;s municipal commissioner, B.K. Sinha, narrowly missed being attacked by a trident-waving mob, composed allegedly of VHP and Bajrang Dal activists. They were protesting over the razing of what they termed was a 8220;temple8221; and what the commissioner himself had described as an illegal structure on municipal land. While a religious and communal colouring was given to the incident, it soon became clear that local builders had stage-managed the whole show, angered as they were by Sinha having ordered the sealing and demolition of some illegal constructions in the city last Wednesday. All this indicates the pusillanimity of the state government to keep its own extremists and supportive lobbies in check. This is a disturbing trend. The state unit of Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which made its debut on the national scene by disrupting an exhibition of M.F. Husain last year, now seems to have gone from strength to strength. In Surat last week, not only did the Bajrang Dal activists decidethat eating dishes made of egg constituted anti-national activity and went on a rampage damaging or burning the humble handcarts of pavement vendors who served such items, it decreed that film actress Kashmira Shah8217;s programmes in the city be cancelled because of her support of the film, Fire. In what has now come to be seen as classic Sena-speak, the local Dal convenor stated that anyone who participated in a Kashmira Shah programme did so at his own risk.

Such behaviour and the tacit support it receives from the ruling party only goes to discredit Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel. The state government has acquired a well-deserved reputation for presiding over some of the worst atrocities against minorities ever witnessed in this country. It tried to defend itself against that charge by claiming that many of the cases were false or grossly exaggerated. But what does it have to say now, when some of its own local leaders have become victims of the wrath of the lumpen?