The women police personnel deputed at Hathibarkala to take on the women BJP leaders and supporters, who were out to break the barricade on way to gherao the Chief Minister’s residence as part of their stir on the matter of Nari Niketan, were found outnumbered as the saffron party brought women supporters in their thousands.
The women cops had a tough time tackling the aggressive saffron women activists as heated altercations and scuffle followed. Things turned serious as the State BJP President Ajay Bhatt said over microphone that the male police personal had been unleashed on the women protesters at the police- erected barricade. Apparently charged by what the State BJP chief said, the BJP women activists started arguing with the women police personnel present. They were found pushing the constables to break the barricade to surge ahead. The situation worsened as some of the women protesters fell down and injured while trying to break the barricade.
Bhatt was heard appealing to the senior police officers to deploy more women police personnel to tackle the worsening situation at the barricade. “This is an imperative as the male cops are misbehaving with the women,” he was heard saying. He also asked the party’s male leaders to desist from going near the barricade while saying that only the women activists should do the same.
later, some protesters climbed atop a roadside wall of a institute in their desperate bid to break the barricade. However, the women cops stepped in to stop them. Their number was woefully less than what was required though, given the strength of the aggressive women protestors.
Observers opine that police had failed to deploy adequate number of women cops with a large number of them now being deployed to do duty at Ardh Kumbh Mela. “However, we hope things would look up as the State police department, facing shortage of women police personnel for long, have decided to recruit 1000 women constables and 150 women sub-inspectors in the State. Once this is done we hope things would be better when it comes to taking on similar things that happened on Monday,” one of the observers says.