Police-public gap widens in sensitive diamond city

The altercation between the Surat police and a group of people over the Ganapati visarjan route that ended in seven deaths has widened the chasm between the police and the public in the communally-sensitive town of Surat.

The VHP, which, has planned ram dhuns and asked for immediate transfer of all policemen present on the spot, is likely to narrow down its demand to the shunting out of the deputy commissioner of police, Mr Manoj Agarwal, who was heading operations in Limbayat.

As an eerie silence engulfed the slum-dominated Limbayat area in Surat after the incident, over 60 Ganapati idols were lying scattered in the area as people ran helter-skelter to save their lives. The police later on did a mass visarjan of all these idols.

The seven killed in police firing were Marathi labourers who had taken a day off to celebrate the visarjan. The injured include nine-year-old Dharmishtha, 12-year-old Chandrakala and a 85-year-old man.

The injured policemen include a deputy superintendent of police and two Rapid Action Force jawans.

Surat witnessed the country's goriest communal riots in the post Babri demolition phase. The police and also the politicians in this money-flush town have been facing a credibility crisis ever since. When the city reeled under floods following a human error that could have been easily averted, the residents had stripped Union minister for state Kanshiram Rana.

Last December saw the ghastly murder of Neeta Satbhaya, a popular municipal councillor, over a land deal which saw the ouster of police commissioner Mani Ram. Today's incident made the public strip the Limbayat councilor, Dr Ravindra Patil and South GujaratBJP leader C.R. Patil. After beating up Dr Patil's life, Mangala, herself a doctor, and setting his home and hospital on fire, the irate mob also burnt a Maruti van and four other vehicles and shouted slogans condemning the role of the Patils.

Preliminary inquiries have revealed these two leaders asked the Ganesh Mandals, who were insistent on not changing the visarjan route, to go ahead on the traditional route claiming that "things would change at the last minute." The police had denied any such last minute relaxation.

The general refrain of the people has been that they were ditched and betrayed by these politicians since the police maintained that these leaders had not been given any assurance for change in route.

Tell us what do you think about this article?

Compiled from Local news media