Mob means a large crowd of people, especially one that is disorderly and intent on causing trouble or violence. A riot is a violent disturbance of peace by a crowd. But a protest is an organised public demonstration expressing strong objection to an official policy or course of action. The recent Puri violence can be concluded as an ‘act of mob'.
Interestingly, the Jagannath Sena, meaning a ‘brigade for protection of Lord Jagannath' is only a self-styled outfit of Puri. The 12th-century shrine has a majestic structure and the rituals are mind-blowing like those of decent human families who love and promote ‘live and let live' ways of life to make the entire world a beautiful place to live in.
Monarchs of the Indian subcontinent, with impressive track records of valour and victory, have visited the gigantic temple with exquisitely carved stone sculptures. The founding monarchs gone and political structures and systems having changed to suit the times, the present circumstances too have forced the temple management reform age-old practices only for devotees’ comfort. Hence, the latest set of grand reforms in the way devotees get to see the deities and are making available facilities for absolutely dignified and hassle-free temple visit.
Most unfortunately, the Jagannath Temple, expected to be the most devotee-friendly, had degenerated into a place of exploitation in the last few decades. As is routinely done everywhere, some active members of the society petitioned the Supreme Court to look into matter.
The court felt stirred and instantly gave relief. The original petitioner had asked for only a little. But the court decided to do a solid lasting job. The Puri District Judge became hero as his recommendations, under the direction of the apex court, turned out to be superbly logical and perfect.
An Amicus Curiae too came, saw and told all at the temple, including the management body, to mend ways or face dire consequences. Of the twelve fantastic points, two were resisted faintly by greedy and cowardly servitors: abolition of hereditary rights and material offering to the deities by devotees through servitors. All stakeholders, apart from devotees, did chorus a big ‘yes' to all simple reforms including the fast-moving ‘queue darshan'.
Everything was honky dory until one fine morning some servitors, grossly ignorant of the Supreme Court rulings, raised voice against the queue darshan and cooked up the non-issue as a big problem citing the fact that local devotees were in distress as they could not enter temple to witness the morning event called 'Mangalalati'.
The decision makers sat brooding as if heavens fell over. What no one could figure out was the number of such specific devotees would not exceed one hundred, ninety per cent of them very elderly way above the 60-year mark. Besides, the wee hours of the day would not have a crowd ever under any circumstances.
The Jagannath Sena is headed by a simple, presumably ignorant lawyer, who, locals say, is a publicity-hungry guy. Since his political ambitions are unlikely to be fulfilled, come whatever may, he devotes pretty much time to being seen and heard anyway. No one knows if the Sena is formally recognised or registered as a society or trust.
He made a call for a Puri Bandh to protest against the queue system, which was passed as good and acceptable by the temple management committee headed by the Gajapati King and led by a Chief Administrator from the senior IAS cadre.
The Sena boss is known to have resorted to such gimmicks for long with a view to grabbing an election ticket from a virtually-wiped out party in Puri. So, when the Sena made a call, police knowing full well the tiny stature of the leader, routinely picked him from home before dawn and installed him in jail. The idea was to let the agitating followers go rudderless when the leader was invisible.
Little did anyone know that a sinister design was carved out by way of a deeper conspiracy by some vested interest individuals who had imagined that blame for their heinous or gory acts would come on the heads of the little brigade without rudder or leader. The leader too had never dreamed of what would happen in hours after he was scooped from bed by the police. That of history is now too well-known.
After the mob ransacked the temple office and vandalised more properties in the vicinity, all in a jiffy, did the police and magisterial authorities realise the wickedness of some masked crooks now being exposed.
The whirlwind riot, over only in minutes, revealed a grave fact: the whole act was part of a larger conspiracy. It is suspected that vested interests including horrible politicians and some rogue servitors found a golden opportunity to have private revenge taken and reforms negated publicly as the brigade was being hauled up as a gang of criminals. Police and jail officials say that even the Sena boss was confused as to what was happening.
He was gravely anxious that life would be difficult hereafter as the people would brand him a Supreme Court defiant. Most fortunately, the District Magistrate and the police administration demonstrated utmost restraint in handling the situation within only one hour; not once were they tempted to open fire or cause severe physical injury to any individual offender or agitator, no matter how violent they turned.
They remained limited to simple ways of crowd dispersion and arrest of catchable culprits at the scene of riot action. As if Lord Jagannath sat in their hearts and told them to remain calm and composed so as never to use weapons of annihilation or bloodshed, which they could have jolly well done! They had to sacrifice some recoverable property that got ransacked, stolen or vandalised. Life was left safe and intact.
The people who matter like the Gajapati King and the Shankaracharya have been quiet. They appear to have remained irresponsible and self-centric.
The Shankaracharya keeps parroting scriptural epics which has nothing to do with historical facts; he avoids critical questions at all times.
Some people, not so aware socially, or sensitive to dreadful outcomes, keep saying the police have failed in their duty. Little do they realise that mobsters are difficult to identify until their action commences. One can gather secret information about Maoist movements, but it is just next to impossible to sense or figure out how a mob would form and act, just the same way as the metereologist can forecast weather for a week but fails to know when the whirlwind would form and cause damage in extremely short duration.
Lastly, the most shocking news is that the big local politician is also defying the queue-based Darshan of the deities. He is also a sworn enemy of the little brigade, whose boss spent the day in jail as his followers dispersed in utter fear.
The local politician's house too was scraped as if by prior design.
A few flower vessels were crushed to pieces. But the news was big: politician’s house attacked and ransacked too.
Police are doing their job coolly and methodically. It’s putting two and two together. The truth would emerge soon.