Mumbai Police yet to shed communal thinking

During communally sensitive times, the Mumbai Police focus only on Muslim areas, expecting trouble only from here, not from Hindu strongholds. The Mira Road Police did the same.

The communal riot at the Mira Road suburb of Mumbai that erupted on January 21 night and went on till Jan 23, followed the classic pattern that Hindu-Muslim riots have post-Independence. Processions by one community were most often the flashpoint; so much so that whether religious processions should be banned was frequently debated in the 1980s, a decade of intense communal violence.

The essence of this pattern was encapsulated in a conversation a senior lawyer and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporter had with this author after the Mumbai riots that followed the demolition of the Babri masjid. We never start a riot, he said; we only retaliate. But because we are the majority, the minority stands no chance against us.

The lawyer omitted a vital component of this pattern: police support for Hindutvawadis, first by allowing them to indulge in provocative acts aimed at eliciting a violent reaction from Muslims; and then by allowing the ‘retaliation’.

While judicial commissions have described this process in detail, a more relatable example is the riots during Ram Navami over the last two years. Yet, despite its predictability, the police was unable to prevent the Mira Road riot.

Did the police not know that a large group of Ram temple supporters would fan out across the city to herald the Ayodhya consecration on January 22? The Sangh parivar has displayed its strength in Mumbai ever since the BJP broke the Shiv Sena and formed a government in Maharashtra in July 2022. Their rallies have been marked by anti-Muslim tirades. Indeed, the Maharashtra government has the dubious distinction of being hauled up by the Supreme Court in the matter of hate speech. The police could not have been oblivious to this.

The police would also have known that January 22 would not be the universally joyous occasion as projected by the ruling party and sections of the media. On the contrary. In Mumbai, where the movement for the Ram mandir in Ayodhya cannot be separated from the unprecedented riots that took place in its name, January 22 had to be regarded as a day when the police needed to be on high alert.

These two elements: the danger from aggressive Hindutvawadis, and the sensitivity of the occasion, should have ensured enough police presence to prevent any clash. Instead, on the eve of January 22, bikers from a saffron rally were able to enter a Muslim ghetto with all the sound and fury expected of such rallyists. Expectedly, some Muslims reacted. Then followed the ‘retaliation’.

There’s another pattern that this riot followed. During communally sensitive times, the police focus only on Muslim areas, expecting trouble only from here, not from Hindu strongholds. The Mira Road police did the same, as one officer admitted.

The failure of the police shows that no lesson has been learnt from the 1992-1993 riots. The B N Srikrishna Commission of Inquiry into the riots found that though communal tension was building up in the city for at least six months before December 6, 1992, the force was unprepared when riots broke out hours after the Babri Masjid was demolished (Commission Report, Vol I, Chapter I, Para 3.1).

During the commission’s hearings, which this author attended, what came through clearly was the police’s mindset. The Ayodhya campaign, including its slogans that taunted and threatened Muslims, was not seen as provocative by the police. During cross-examination, it became evident that the police saw nothing wrong with the sentiments expressed by these slogans, more so because they were being raised in Hindu areas.

Yet, some of the worst violence took place in Hindu areas, where huge mobs were left free to roam around spreading rumours and hunting down their scattered victims.

The commission recommended that it was "necessary to exorcise the police force of this evil” [of communal thinking]. Obviously, no such thing has been done.

Had the police regarded Muslim ghettos surrounded by Hindu colonies, such as Naya Nagar in Mira Road, vulnerable; and had the police gauged the danger in Hindu areas from where the saffron rallies originated, the violence may not have taken place.

While the police have arrested rioters from both communities, BJP MLAs Nitesh Rane and Geeta Jain, whose utterances openly threatened Muslims, have not been charged, let alone arrested. A member of the saffron convoy who brandished a gun has also been let off because the gun was found to be fake.

The government underlined this message by sending a bulldozer — with the media in attendance — not only to Mira Road, but also far away, in the old Muslim quarter in the city. None of those whose lives' earnings were crushed under the bulldozer were among the 13 people arrested for rioting. 

They paid a price just for being Muslim in a BJP-ruled state.

(Jyoti Punwani is a senior journalist.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.