Read the riot act, Modi plays ball

But today, the contrast with February 288212;the day the VHP called a bandh to protest the Sabarmati Express attack8212;couldn8217;t have been more stark.

That day, the BJP joined the bandh call, the state went up in flames, 150 were killed in Ahmedabad alone, scores of shops ransacked and torched, while the police and administration either looked on or looked away.

Today, it was just the opposite. Consider the following:

8226; An attempt was made to damage Mini Motors, a shop in Thakkarbapanagar around noon. Within minutes, the police reached the area. The Army patrol came in at 1.20 pm, followed by a convoy of top police officials in just three minutes.

On February 28, in next-door Odhav, a 10,000-strong mob had gathered and the police never reached. Said head constable P Sharma posted at Mini Motors today: 8216;8216;A mob of 5,000 can gather in minutes but we won8217;t let that happen.8217;8217;

In fact, this was the strategy across the city: police never allowed crowds to gather, dispersing them even before they swelled to 25.

8226; In Vadodara, plain-clothed policemen had been marking VHP and Bajrang Dal volunteers since Wednesday.

8226; Traffic was diverted in Vadodara8217;s Mandvi area when the VHP and Bajrang Dal cadres insisted on taking out a rally.

8226; In Rajkot, police officers were threatened with suspension for laxity in work, the reserve police put on standby in mobile vans.

8226; In Surat8217;s Varachha area, the VHP and BD cadres made policing easy by withdrawing themselves from a possible confrontation when owners of diamond units refused to down shutters citing export commitments.

8216;8216;This proves if a State Goverments wills, it can achieve anything,8217;8217; says Gautam Desai, a peace activist, as he surveyed Naroda-Patiya, where 90 people were massacred on February 28. So peaceful was the bandh that people actually termed it 8216;8216;tensionless.8217;8217;

When contacted, Minister of State for Home Gordhan Zadaphia said: 8216;8216;The two bandhs can8217;t be compared. Maintaining law and order is the job of the police there were no specific instructions. Only, the people co-operated with us this time.8217;8217;

Director General of Police DGP K Chakravarti attributed it to effective policing made possible by the additional reinforcement from Army and para-military forces. 8216;8216;Strategies can fail without additional force,8217;8217; he said.

In fact, the police did not take any chances sending in reinforcements to Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Dahod and the Panchamahals, and all other places that bore the brunt of violence on February 28.

Shekhar Patil and S Brahmbhatt, both residents of Thakkarbapanagar, provided testimony to effective policing. 8216;8216;They are not allowing tolas to gather. The moment 10-15 assemble, they run after the mob,8217;8217; they say, informing that 8216;8216;there is peace but for the damage to Mini Motors.8217;8217;

Another strategy was to patrol borders dividing Hindu and Muslim localities. Bandobast in areas dominated by one community was minimal, the deployment changed in proportion to the sensitiveness of the locality.

But for a minor incident in Bapunagar in Ahmedabad the city did not witness any incident.

However, the day8217;s only bad news came from Surat where two persons, including a driver employed with the Surat Municipal Corporation, were stabbed and a mutton shop torched in the morning. This is the fourth stabbing in the city since the attack on Akshardham.

The first incident occurred at around 8.45 am when 30-year-old Nazir Rasul Vora, a resident of Unn village, was on his way to office. Vora, who works with the SMC as a driver, said the auto dropped him midway as the driver was scared.

8216;8216;After paying off the autorickshaw driver, I started walking to office. Then, two or three persons attacked me with trishuls. I fell on the ground and when I regained consciousness, I was in the hospital. They probably attacked me because I have a long beard.8217;8217; Some passersby took him to Maskati Hospital. Doctors say his condition is stable.

Mohammed Sabir, 23, was attacked by at least three people carrying sickles near Surat Cotton Mill at Begumpura around 10 am. The victim, a resident of Prabhunagar at Limbayat, was returning home on his bicycle when he was hit on the head with a sickle.

Said Sabir: 8216;8216;I had gone to a madrasa in Rampura early in the morning. Returning, some three to four persons intercepted me from behind and started kicking and punching me. Suddenly, one of them pulled out a sickle and hit me on the head. I collapsed on the spot and don8217;t remember how I landed up in hospital.8217;8217; Police said a hunt was on for the assailants.