Tags:
Journalism of Courage
In Kokrajhar and Mumbai,government fails in the fundamental task of keeping the peace
Arguably,at another time,another place,650 police personnel for a 15,000-plus agitated crowd might have been adequate. But for Mumbais Azad Maidan on Saturday,it was evidently not enough. Once the protesters turned violent,the police were shown to be altogether unprepared. They should have known better,given the building context,and once the crowd began swelling above the figure permission had been sought for. There were two deaths,and many were injured on Saturday. Since then,it has been revealed that the Mumbai Police had prior intelligence of law-and-order problems.
At another level,the Congress-led government in Maharashtra has mirrored the failures of its counterpart in Assam in its response to crisis. As in Assam,warning signals were clearly not read. Also,like Assam,this was followed by the failure of the states resolve to manage and mitigate the fallout. As a result,the terrible Kokrajhar violence,which has claimed a heavy toll and displaced over four lakh people,has been allowed to sow its first seeds outside Assam in Mumbai and the trouble could spread,if Pune is any indication. While the UPAs rule has been marked by the absence of large communal-ethnic conflagrations,it must know that the failure by Congress-led governments to put a timely stop to violence will sully that record.
