Home Minister G. Parameshwara virtually admitted to not anticipating the violence on Monday when he said on Tuesday morning that initially “our tolerance was misused”, but the government “later handled the situation effectively”.
Given that a Supreme Court directive on Cauvery was anticipated days in advance and provocative videos were going viral early by Monday morning, the moot question is: Why and how the police force and political machinery did not act sooner?
Sluggish action
Many senior police officials the The Hindu spoke to admitted that the response was “both delayed and inadequate”. It appeared to have been a political decision to handle protesters with kid gloves initially, considering the “sensitivity” of the Cauvery issue. The situation had already gone out of hand before the government took the call on a decisive crackdown against the mob.
“Though there was enough deployment on the ground, the imposition of prohibitory orders came only in the evening. The response was probably inadequate,” admitted retired police officer Gopal B. Hosur. Section 144 of Cr.PC was clamped much after Mysuru Road was taken over by the violent mobs.
Police Commissioner N.S. Megharikh, however, defended the decision. He said: “Our first priority was to control the situation. We imposed prohibitory orders only later to prevent further violence”. Many senior officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, begged to differ.
A senior official overlooking the deployment of forces on Monday also said “gap in policing” emerged from the fact that while the force was in big numbers in linguistically-sensitive areas, that have earlier witnessed violence against Tamil-speaking people, they were not the targets on Monday.
New pattern
“The pattern of the protest on Monday was completely different from earlier Kannada-Tamil violence. For instance, we had good deployment on Hosur border, but the area did not see much violence. The violence was on Mysuru Road and areas along the Outer Ring Road from Nayandahalli to Yeshwantpur, an axis new to this sort of violence. These are areas where self-styled Kannada groups have a strong presence,” said a source.
Many argued that this pattern also points to the violence not being “spontaneous” but orchestrated, with political patronage.
To the credit of the city police, they were constantly active on social media platforms, clarifying the rumours spreading in the city. They also directed stranded commuters to safer places. The imposition of curfew in 15 police station limits seemed to have helped ensure an almost incident-free Bakrid on Tuesday.
Though there was enough deployment on the ground, the imposition of prohibitory orders came only in the evening. The response was probably inadequate.
Gopal B. Hosurretired police officer
