Dhule's Uniformed Rioters
Police participation in the recent Dhule communal riots shows nothing has changed since 1992-93.
The death of six Muslim youth (all below 25 years) in police firing during riots in the northern Maharashtra town of Dhule on 6 January is proof that very little has changed in the attitude of the Maharashtra police. Twenty years ago, when communal riots rocked Mumbai, the bias of the local police force was more than evident. The Srikrishna Commission as well as numerous other fact-finding committees and media reports documented the incriminatory role of the Mumbai police and its anti-minority attitude.
Therefore it comes as no surprise that once again the communal bias of the local police is on full display, this time in Dhule. A small quarrel (over a lunch bill of Rs 60) turned into a riot and a section of the police not only took sides but also participated in it. Video clippings showing policemen looting stalls, hammering on vehicles in Muslim-dominated areas and aiming above the waist as they fired at rioters in Dhule are in the public domain.
A citizens’ fact-finding committee that visited Dhule in mid-January found that the police failed to act quickly, targeted only the Muslim stone throwers, fired with the intent to kill, left the injured in the police firing unattended, watched while mobs looted and burnt Muslim homes and shops, and that a section among them (police) also looted and damaged Muslim property. (Two policemen identified in the videos have since been suspended.) The committee examined the civil hospital records to verify the police claim that they were attacked with lethal chemicals. It found that a majority of the police personnel were discharged following first aid and a very small number had minor burn injuries. Families of the Muslim victims told the committee that they were afraid to take the injured to the civil hospital following the experience of the 2008 communal clash in Dhule, when they were attacked even there. As a result, all of them opted to go to private hospitals.
While Dhule, which borders Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh with state and national highways running through it, is known for its powerlooms, it is also infamous for kerosene and oil adulteration rackets and even a thriving satta (gambling) industry. Dhule is now a symbol of developmental neglect with a high incidence of unemployment among its youth. Such periodic violence and communal hostility will not help attract capital and improve the town and its surroundings.
Although after viewing the video clippings implicating the police, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan did acknowledge that “unfortunately there are some communal elements lurking around in the police”, both he and local politicians continue to refer to this incident as a clash between Muslims and the police. How can a police force (even a section within it) that is meant to maintain law and order go about destroying citizens’ property and disregard protocol about dealing with unarmed but enraged mobs?
The state government had been warned by the Srikrishna Commission report about police bias in favour of the majority community during the 1992-93 riots. However, over the past 15 years the state government has shown no interest in prosecuting the police officials indicted by the commission. As a result, the Muslim community has felt increasingly alienated. Its leaders and activists have pointed out that the tendency of the police to pick up Muslim youth for interrogation after every bomb blast and lock them up on flimsy evidence has dented the community’s faith in the system and the police. The violence against the police by a small mob during a Muslim protest meeting at Azad Maidan in Mumbai on 11 August last year is an indication of the deep fissures and the sense of alienation that a section of Muslim youth feel. The calls for sensitisation of the police force towards religious minorities (as also towards other marginalised and discriminated sections) have been many over the years. The role of the police in the Dhule riots shows that at the ground level nothing has changed.
Like in Dhule, all of Maharashtra needs efficient governance and a prejudice-free police force. This much is clear beyond dispute. What is unclear is what the state government is waiting for to make the police force accountable to the citizens of the state regardless of the religion they follow. The absence of a follow-up on the government’s promise of a judicial inquiry into the Dhule riots and killings does not bode well for the future.
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