The Hindu : Gujarat police top brass want a `free hand'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 24, 2002

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Gujarat police top brass want a `free hand'

By Manas Dasgupta

GANDHINAGAR MARCH 23. The senior police officers in Gujarat are believed to have asked the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, to stop "political patronage" to elements encouraging and instigating violence in the State to bring the riot situation under control.

The senior police officers reportedly named Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal leaders as behind the current disturbances and asked him for a "free hand" to take action against these elements to restore peace and normality.

The continued violence in different parts of the State in the last 23 days had not only brought a bad name to Gujarat, but had also maligned the police. "Our own batchmates in other States are calling us eunuchs that we cannot control communal riots for such a long time,'' a senior police officer commented, with his other colleagues nodding in unison.

The police officers are also said to have told the Chief Minister that they would rather prefer to be transferred or removed from their posts rather than be forced to sit idle and allow the situation to deteriorate. Mr. Modi had the "taste of the belligerent mood" of the senior officers before he convened an official meeting on Friday to review the situation.

At the official meeting, however, Mr. Modi talked of "stringent action" against the perpetrators of violence and asked the police to act without fear or favour but the officers are reportedly still suspicious whether this meant a free hand to act against Sangh Parivar outfits.

``Give us a free hand and we can control the situation in one day,'' some senior officers told the Chief Minister. They also expressed the apprehension that if the situation was allowed to deteriorate, it might go out of control and then it would become difficult to restore law and order, and the people would lose confidence in the administration.

Mr. Modi is also believed to be under pressure from the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, to restore peace in the State at the earliest even if it means taking action against the Parivar outfits. Mr. Vajpayee is said to have told Mr. Modi to take steps to remove the "impression of discrimination against the minority communities".

As a way out, it was decided at a meeting of the BJP legislature party last evening that all party MLAs should write letters to the Prime Minister and other high command leaders about the sufferings of Hindus in the riots.

The MLAs have been told to encourage people in their constituencies also to write similar letters in large numbers to erase the impression of discrimination and bring home the "fact'' that Hindus had suffered "even more'' than the minorities in the riots.

Mr. Modi also finds himself in a fix over the Prime Minister's suggestion to constitute an all-party committee to supervise the relief camps for the riot victims. Mr. Vajpayee has reportedly given a similar assurance to the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, in response to her letter as the leader of the all-party delegation of parliamentarians which visited the affected areas a fortnight ago.

The State Revenue Department is said to have prepared a file accordingly but is still awaiting the Chief Minister's approval. Sources close to the Chief Minister said that he felt unnerved by the idea because it would expose "the Government's discriminatory attitude against the minorities, most of whom are compelled to live in unhealthy relief camps".

Mr. Modi, it is said, advised the administration to fold up the relief camps by the end of the month under the "garb of restoring normality".

The demand made by the Minister of State for Civil Supplies, Bharat Barot, who represents one of the worst-hit Dariapur-Kazipur Assembly constituency in Ahmedabad city, was significant in this context.

Mr. Barot wanted the Government to fold up the three relief camps in his area in which about 6,000 riot victims, mostly from the minority community — though there are a few hundred Hindus also in one of the camps — on the ground that the Hindus living in the vicinity were feeling "threatened''.

The suggestion has temporarily been shelved by the Home Ministry because the situation is still not conducive enough to force the minorities to return to their homes, but the Chief Minister is unwilling to accept the demands of the minorities to continue the camps at least till May.

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