SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, June 16: Jharkhand is passing through unusual times.
First, the violent protests on Friday last after prayers at a mosque in the State capital, caught the police off guard, though there was actionable intelligence inputs that some minority community members might create trouble ostensibly to protest BJP leader Nupur Sharma’s comment on Prophet Mohammad.
Then, the protesters comprising youths and teens, armed with stones and bricks, marched menacingly on Main road, smashing vehicles which they found on the road. They set on fire rickshaws and ‘thelas’ of the poor men.
When stopped they pelted stones on the policemen, and also nearby temples where several people took shelter to save their life. The policemen, who were not ready with the protective gears and other preventive weapons like rubber bullets and tear gas shells, found themselves helpless in the face of the violent mob. Subsequently, they opened fire to save themselves in which two youths were killed.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren immediately formed a two-member committee to probe into it. Thankfully, the Hindus did not react to the attack on at least four temples and maintained calm.
The next day, Governor Ramesh Bais summoned DGP Neeraj Sinha and the Ranchi SSP S K Jha and asked them among other things to put up the posters of the trouble makers on various locations in the city in order to name and shame the people who tried to jolt the social harmony in Jharkhand.
Many believe that, in the first place, the Governor should not have passed a directive directly to the SSP on the law and order issue. No wonder the Congress raised objection to it, saying Jharkhand is not under the President’s rule where the SSP should have obeyed the Governor’s order.
But when the SSP complied with the Governor’s order, he faced the anger of the government besides the ruling parties, including the JMM and the Congress.
Home Secretary Rajiv Arun Ekka, who also happens to be the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, issued a show cause to the SSP, saying the action violated the Allahabad High Court order given in context of a similar action in UP. Incidentally, the UP police put up posters of at least 59 ‘unidentifiable’ trouble makers on Wednesday.
One does not know how many times the Home Secretary has acted so swiftly and issued notices to the erring SPs in the past though many of them have been found indulging in more serious acts.
Many believe that the SSP must have briefed the government authorities before he went ahead with executing the Governor’s order. So, the home secretary’s action is said to be an afterthought after the Congress opposed the “naming the shaming’ action and more so for the public consumption when the bye-election for the Mandar assembly seat is to be held on June 23.
But this action of the home secretary has not only demoralised the policemen, but also embarrassed the Governor. No wonder, BJP legislature party chief Babulal Marandi alleged today that the Ranchi police are hesitating to arrest the mastermind behind the Friday violence under pressure from the high-ups though it has definite information about them.
Also, the Home Secretary’s notice, which must have been issued after the Chief Minister’s permission, has created a situation of showdown between the Governor and the State Government.
Meanwhile, amid controversy over the ‘bulldozer justice’ against the stone pelters and their mastermind in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand Congress MLA Irfan Ansari has demanded martyr status for the two boys, who fell victims to the police bullets while pelting stones on the policemen after Friday prayers on June 10.
Ansari, a big mouth and blowhard MLA, met Chief Minister Hemant Soren yesterday and also demanded Rs 50 lakh and a government job to the kin of the two boys.
He also questioned the crime which made them fall victim to the police bullets as if pelting stones on the policemen and setting public properties on fire is not a crime.
One should not forget that a DSP had been killed in Jharkhand in 2001 with a stone which hit him during protests at Doranda in 2001.
