The day Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim was convicted of rape and went to jail, pre-scripted violence by the disgraced self-styled godman along with his fanatic followers, turned out to be another sorry tale of administrative and police failure of the Manohar lal Khattar Government.
Thirty-nine people, many of them women and children, lost their lives, more than 260 wounded and property worth crores of rupees was damaged within few hours on August 25 in the aftermath of court’s verdict against Ram Rahim, as the Khattar led Haryana Government was caught napping again, when faced with a formidable challenge on the law and order front.
Even as intelligence inputs suggested that gathering of lakhs of Dera sect followers defying prohibitory orders at Panchkula adjoining Chandigarh, could take an ugly turn following verdict against Ram Rahim, the Chief Minister failed to act.
Ahead of the court’s verdict on August 25, the Chief Minister and State’s top brass kept assuring that the police along with paramilitary forces and Army are fully prepared to avert any untoward situation, however, the Government, due to its political and administrative ineptness, once again failed the people of Haryana.
As the frenzied followers of rape convict Ram Rahim went on a rampage, hurling stones, vandalizing media vehicles and setting on fire several vehicles and Government buildings in Panchkula, the episode brought back the chilling memories of last year’s violent Jat agitation, that had killed 31 people and left over 200 injured in Haryana.
Infuriated over inability of BJP Government to maintain law and order in the State, Panchkula residents were seen chanting slogans, against the Chief Minister, “Khattar Murdabad! BJP Murdabad! Khattar istifa do! (Down with Khattar! Down with the BJP! Khattar should resign), even as the visibly embarrassed CM, admitted making some mistakes that could have been avoided to avert violence in the city.
After his Government’s surrender to votebank politics in the Jat agitation, the RSS swayamsewak turned Chief Minister, Khattar again “failed” with to visualize and taken corrective steps in the Panchkula mayhem and claimed some anti-social elements got mixed up with the followers of Dera Sacha Sauda after the verdict by the CBI court and resorted to violence and disrupted peace.
Since then the Chief Minister has been staying away from public and media to avoid uncomfortable questions over the situation in Haryana but his Friday’s statement speaks volumes about why Government adopted a “soft approach” towards lakhs of Dera sect followers, who descended on Panchkula from various States, raising fears of possible violence ahead of verdict.
The rape convict, Dera chief, who claimed to have crores of followers, had announced his support to BJP, both in lok Sabha and in Haryana Assembly elections and enjoyed the patronage of the ruling party with its ministers even doling out crores in donation to the Dera.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had given stern directives to the State Government to prevent last year’s Jat agitation like violence in Panchkula, also came down heavily on the Government for “protecting and extending political patronage” to controversial godman and allowing Haryana to burn for political gains.
Nevertheless, after the “good governance” claims of Government went down the drain on August 25, the Chief Minister and his top brass including Chief Secretary DS Dhesi, Additional Chief Secretary Home, Ram Niwas and DGP BS Sandhu are now vociferously defending their failure and trotting out excuses that crackdown on the Dera supporters at Panchkula before the judgement would have led to more violence in the State.
Not only this, some Government officials also claim that it was Government’s strategy to not take a stern action against Dera followers as their priority was to ensure that the Dera chief Ram Rahim present himself before Panchkula CBI court on Friday. Sadly, the Khattar Government is also patting its back for controlling the violent situation in around three hours at Panchkula and terms it as their “achievement”, even as it came at the cost of 39 lives lost including 33 at Panchkula and 6 at Sirsa since Friday.
DGP BS Sandhu said that the death toll would have been much higher and consequences could have been worst but we managed to control the violence and mob was being being pushed out of Panchkula within three years.
Meanwhile, the entire blame for violence in Panchkula was put on IPS Ashok Kumar, DCP Panchkula, who was suspended for his failure in implementing the prohibitory orders in Panchkula. Ashok Kumar, however, was not the first scapegoat to pay for the apathy of his Government. The BJP, however, maintained silence over Ram Rahim’s close ties with its senior ministers, who gave crores in donation to the dera sect.
Be it the 2016 violent Jat agitation or 2014 incident when there was a two-week tense standoff between the self-styled godman Rampal’s followers and the State police, the maiden BJP led Haryana Government’s inexperience in handling emergency situations have came to the fore time and again.
Political observers feel that the spectre of violence haunting the State over the last couple of years is the result of inexperienced leadership in the State. Khattar, who is a first time MlA, is seen as a political novice and inexperienced administrator, having failed to act sternly during emergency situations and often depended on assistance from central party leadership.
Former bureaucrats also feel that the large number of fatalities and damage to public property in both 2016 Jat agitation and August 25 violence by dera sect followers could have been averted had the State Government acted fairly and promptly.
Retired IPS officer Prakash Singh, former DGP of Uttar Pradesh, who headed the panel, constituted by Haryana Government to probe the lapses into the official response during violence Jat quota stir said that the incident of violence at Panchkula was the result of political procrastination and bureaucratic failure.
Singh, while talking to The Pioneer said that the government acted only when the HC issued stern orders to the government for maintaining the law and order situation. Even as the political will to act against the dera followers was missing, the Police should have acted and not have allowed such a large congregation at Panchkula, said the retired IPS officer.
It is unfortunate that the State Government did not learn any lesson after 2016 Jat agitation and continued to mishandling the emergency situations in Haryana. The Jat agitation claimed 31 lives while the incident at Panchkula claimed 39 lives so far, he added.
In his report submitted to the government, Prakash Singh had made strong observations against Haryana Chief Ministers, saying they had “eroded the authority of certain institutions" with a view to concentrate powers in their own office and as a result "the office of the Chief Secretary does not command the power or enjoy the prestige it does in most other states.”
“The Home Department plays a somewhat subsidiary role in matters relating to law and order in Haryana. These distortions need to be corrected to prevent a repeat of similar paralysis in the future,” he had observed in its report that had blasted the Haryana civil and police administration for not acting fairy and promptly during Jat agitation last year.
The recommendations in Prakash Singh Committee report, which had left the Haryana Government red-faced, were later ignored by it.
Following the repeat of Jat agitation like violence in Panchkula on August 25, the State Government has attracted severe criticism from several quarters and the industry. Many say that repeated incidents of violence and arson, which bring the state to a standstill, will not inspire industrialists to invest their money in the state, where the life and property of the common people is at risk.