M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, March 6: A peace meet was held in the town police station on Sunday wherein Palamu SP Chandan Kumar Sinha issued a warning in the meet. He joined the meeting late on Sunday evening but rounded up the meeting with the most bitter notes and expressions.
The warning was ‘Never breach peace or public tranquillity as it brings in years of a legal battle for the offenders of the law.’
The grounds swelled for a heated discussion with the SP when members of both communities were almost singing time-worn tunes on harmony and peace like `any mechanised manner’ as just three weeks ago ‘they were found to be most critical of the Panki communal violence but in the peace meet both communities played as if nothing had happened to Panki or Palamu.
The tough-talking of the SP, preceded by an Urdu couplet recited by him at the beginning of his 10-minute speech, had driven an impression that the man in uniform would not spare anyone as Panki’s trauma haunts everyone and also him as an SP.
“It`s been around one year and eight months since I came here as SP Palamu. Having peacefully endured more than a dozen mass celebrations here, but a few days ahead of this Maha Shivratri, such a violent outburst was so shocking and terrifying that it comes as a poor reminder that peace and harmony can shatter under any pretext in Palamu,” said Sinha.
Stung by the rhetoric and lip service to peace, Chandan Kumar Sinha, opened a can of worms in his ‘closing speech’ in the context of the Panki communal violence.
Meanwhile, SP asked, ” Who had given permission to go and dig the pit for a pole for the Maha Shivratri when the local Panki police had specifically ordered both communities to appear at the Panki police station in the morning? Who gave the right to the other community to cause head injury to a member of the community who went to dig the pit and poles?”
“In the meet, you people either try to keep the most tragic and saddest things of Panki unsaid or try to cover it up when it’s time to learn lessons from such an incident,” SP told the gathering.
“Those who had seen the mob, their belligerent faces and their baying for blood in Panki would try to investigate the cause, but here, you are pretending as if there is nothing to matter, added the SP.
Meanwhile, a member stood up and praised the SP, who was immediately asked not to make such kind of speech again.
At the outset, the participation of members of both communities in the peace meeting was very poor. Abhay Kumar Sinha, the spurring officer in charge of the town police station said that members now have little interest to attend meetings on peace.
Assistant Superintendent of Police and SDPO Rishabha Garg also noted the low number of members attending the meeting, but they explained that despite their small number, their commitment to peace is very important.
SP Palamu had to allude to the words of the great philosopher Plato. He said, “If you are not called in for a good, join the good cause on your own”. The advice was intended to address a number of complaints that police had not properly notified members about the peace meeting.”
