Ramabai Nagar erupts again

FEBRUARY 3: In a near-replay of the rioting that followed the desecration of an Ambedkar bust on June 11, 1997, police fought pitched batt...

FEBRUARY 3: In a near-replay of the rioting that followed the desecration of an Ambedkar bust on June 11, 1997, police fought pitched battles with rioters to restore traffic along the Eastern Express Highway after hundreds of Republician Party of India RPI activists resorted to heavy stone-throwing near Mata Ramabai Nagar Colony at Ghatkopar E this morning. The activists, who also blocked traffic at Amar Mahal at Chembur, smashed windscreens of BEST buses and passing vehicles.

Trouble began at around 8.30 am, when RPI activists learnt that a bust of Dr Ambedkar had been stoned at Powai on Wednesday evening. More than 700 RPI activists, including women, gathered near the bust of Dr Ambedkar at the entrance of Ramabai Colony and, fuelled by the central government8217;s proposal to review the Indian Constituition, a free-for-all ensued. Even before party leaders could address the angry gathering, a large mob rushed on to the adjoining highway and began pelting stones at passing vehicles.

Policemen were cautioned not to use force to quell the mob and the reasons are not far to see. Eleven persons were killed in the 1997 police firing after stone-throwing RPI activists tried to stop traffic near Ramabai Colony after the desecration of an idol at the colony8217;s gates.

8220;The situation was similar but it had to be controlled,8221; admits Additional Commissioner of Police North-East region Ramrao Ghadge, who held the same post in 1997. Hundreds of boys, barely in their teens, suddenly emerged in groups and resorted to heavy stone pelting and later disappeared into the narrow bylanes of the colony.

Train services on the Harbour Line section of the Central Railway were also temporarily suspended at around 9.15 am today after hundreds of RPI activists squatted on the tracks. Services resumed at 10.15 am after police dispersed the activists. While four buses were damaged, the wind screens of six other vehicles were also smashed. Rioters tried to torch a BEST bus but succeeded only in burning seat cushions, Ghadge said. However, RPI activists from the nearby Kamraj Nagar also joined the fray. Their strength soon swelled and the situation spiralled out of control.

Street battles soon spread to other sections of the Dalit-dominated colony and arsonists ransacked a Shiv Sena shaka near Prabhat Colony in the neighbourhood. They also targeted a Sena office near Rajkamal Hotel.

Traffic on the highway was finally restored at around 1 pm, when three additional State Reserve Police platoons were deployed. However, sporadic incidents continued till late afternoon.

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Tension also prevailed at the Jyotiba Phule hutment colony near the Indian Institute of Technology campus at Powai over Wendesday night8217;s incident there. 8220;I was sitting near the bust on Wednesday night, when at least five stones were flung over the wall of the IIT campus, two of them hit the bust,8221; says Nitesh Janghav, pointing to a patch where a stone had chipped the black paint.

DCP Madhukar Gavit, who rushed to the spot at 9.30 pm, said investigations are underway. 8220;There was some tension here which has been defused,8221; he said, at around the same time that the brick-batting in Ghatkopar raged. RPI activists led a march to the local police chowky and called for a Powai bandh forcing shopkeepers to down shutters.

8220;We have given the police a deadline of a week to catch the culprits. otherwise we shall have to start a fresh agitation,8221; said Pradeep Hazare, an RPI representative from the colony of around 6,000 persons.

Minister of State for Home Minister Kripashankar Singh and Transport Minister Gangadhar Gade accompanied by Police Commissioner R H Mendonca visited both the Jyotiba Phule colony and Ramabai Nagar in the evening. They asked the people to exercise restraint.