CHENNAI: Caught off-guard by the swiftness in which the youth demonstration in support of Jallikattu assumed unprecedented proportions in scale, scope and reach, police officials in the State are pointing fingers at one another for lack of anticipation, failure to monitor effectively and floundering in controlling the agitation in Chennai and elsewhere.
According to senior police sources, the protest which assumed gigantic proportions on Thursday could be attributed to intelligence failure at State and city levels. The intelligence wing which alerts police on the number of people expected to join the protest based on which personnel would be deployed, failed to alert this time, said an officer.
It was not just the city police intelligence but even the State intelligence apparatus failed to foresee the scale the protest could assume, charged another officer.
“The first protest at Alanganallur, which triggered it all, was not monitored efficiently. The local police officers, too, failed to handle the situation well,” the officer added.
Among the biggest failure was not monitoring the social media sites, which emerged as the key tool in organising the youth from far and near. “The protesters were busy gathering support online and drawing crowds through sites like Facebook. But no intelligence personnel was assigned to monitor that,” added a source.
Had they monitored it and managed the situation well to disperse the crowd in the beginning itself, “it would not have led to this situation where so many students are gathering,” the officer added.
An intelligence officer said they had duly alerted the law and order wing when just about a dozen protesters gathered on the beach on Tuesday. But as that day coincided with AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran’s 100th birth centenary, the personnel were deployed for the celebrations.
Another officer said there was an opening to defuse the situation early in the agitation when the crowd was small. The demonstrators’ plan was to meet the CM who was to pass that way. “Even the protesters did not expect the crowd to become what it is now. But on that day, the route of the CM’s convoy was changed and the protesters too changed plans,” he said.
Personnel on the ground said there was a lapse in judgement among top level officials. “When there were only around 200 people, we informed our superiors. But they did not take it seriously,” he said.