Stone pelters punished but who will punish Delhi Police for complicity?

Should a Hindu religious procession go through a predominantly Muslim locality and by mosque or mosques? Should such a procession be allowed during the important evening prayers before breaking fast in the month of Ramzan and if allowed, should such processions be asked to pass the mosques and Gurudwaras in silence?

In several parts of the country, Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti processions, a new addition, passed off peacefully because police were vigilant; because processionists were conscious of their responsibility and stopped playing music while passing by mosques and during evening prayers. At several places Muslims showered flower petals on the Hindu processionists and offered them sherbet. Community leaders embraced each other, exchanged greetings.

Why then did violence break out in Jahangirpuri on April 16? What made Delhi Police give permission to two Hanuman Jayanti processions on the same day to pass through that area? More importantly, how was a third procession, with no permission from the police, escorted by the police during the evening prayers at the mosque?

While 24 ‘stone pelters’ were arrested, no action has been taken against officials and policemen responsible for the mess. No accountability has been fixed five days after violence broke out.

Religious processions, points out commentator Arun Sharma, should have been marked by religious songs, bhajans and kirtans, not by loud and abusive songs. They should have been led by the elderly, and not by teenagers and unemployed youth. Hanuman is nowhere depicted with even a sword. But processionists in Jahan-girpuri brandished swords, knives, baseball bats and hockey sticks. Who supplied them weapons like the katta (countrymade pistols) and who coined the provocative and derogatory slogans targeting Muslims?

Delhi Police did not quite enhance its credibility by first tweeting that a VHP activist, Prem Sharma, had been arrested for taking out the procession without permission; and then claiming that the offence was bailable and hence he was let off on bail after he ‘joined’ the investigation.

The failure of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah and his hand-picked Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana in preventing the second communal flare up in Delhi in as many years, is glaring. No riot can take place, boast police officers, if the police do not want it. They would appear to be right since large parts of India remained free of violence. But what went wrong in Delhi? The officials’ accountability must be fixed.