“Studies on communal riots in independent India have repeatedly highlighted the collusion between the government, the rioting aggressors, the police and the activists of the ruling dispensations of the time. Even so, the record of the current regime at the Centre is exceptional. It is as though the collusion is steroid-driven. It is characterised by a sort of unparalleled blatancy in flouting democratic and administrative norms and systems as well as in pursuing devious stratagems. The case of the Delhi riots in the last week of February is no different.” This was how former senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and renowned Hindi author Vibhuti Narain Rai said in response to Frontline’s question in the first week of March, even as the Delhi Police claimed that things had returned to normal in the national capital.
Rai went on to add that the blatancy of the collusion and violation of norms during these days was such that the command and control of the Delhi Police was practically shifted to North Block, which houses the Union Home Ministry, marking a grave administrative fault line. “But that was being done without any qualms.” Rai’s observations are founded on his three-and-a-half-decade-long service in the IPS, during which he carried out relentless research on the communalisation of politics and administrative services, including the police and other security agencies. This research reflects in his works such as Shahar Mein Curfew (Curfew in the City), Combating Communal Conflict, and Communal Conflicts: Perception of Police Neutrality During Hindu-Muslim Riots in India.
This story is from the March 27, 2020 edition of FRONTLINE.
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This story is from the March 27, 2020 edition of FRONTLINE.
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