VHP flops, it’s police show of strength

Only 150-odd activists turned up. And they managed to walk some 250 m in procession when they were stopped half a kilometre from the venue and arrested after two leaders were allowed to make brief speeches. Once the speeches and slogan-shouting were over, the police asked the activists to get into a waiting van. They did without creating much fuss.

It was such a climbdown that everyone wondered whether the show was worth all the money that the state exchequer was made to lose. The administration had made such strict arrangements that the organisations known for their guerrilla-type demonstrations and last-minute change of strategies simply caved in.

‘‘We allowed them a face-saver, rather than chasing them from the beginning and create trouble we let them cover some distance,’’ confided a police officer. In fact, when the rallyists assembled near Bhoiwada and Patthar Talavadi, police walked with them some distance before applying brakes. Godhra MP Bhupendrasinh Solanki, national chief of Bajrang Dal Haresh Bhatt, and local VHP secretary Rakesh Thakor were among those present in the rally.

While Bhatt and Thakor made speeches parroting Togadia’s Lyngdoh bashing, Solanki walked away when the arrests were being made. ‘‘I was there to avoid confrontation between the police and the rallyists, and was playing a mediator,’’ he said. Bhatt and Thakor were among the 54 activists arrested for violating prohibitory orders and taken to the SRP ground where they were expected to be released late in the evening.

The day began with the security agencies maintaining a strict vigil all around the ground that looked set for a major confrontation. The police were so strict in the morning that two local BJP leaders who made an attempt to pass by the ground on a two-wheeler were hauled up and one of them was beaten. All the entry points to the city and to the venue were nearly sealed and every vehicle was thoroughly screened.

Since a handful turned from outside and there was not any support from within the city, the aborted rally was a small affair.

Vehicle owners who strayed into the locality were asked to leave their vehicles and return with licenses and papers, while one of the two main roads to the venue had been barricaded in the afternoon. The incomplete stage erected by the VHP cadres bore testimony to the flop show. The police did not dismantle it even though the deadline they had given to the organisers to pull it down expired at 5 p.m. on Saturday. ‘‘Dismantling it would have provided them some fodder to confront, we did not want it. In any case, the stage served little purpose,’’ an officer said.