MANGALURU: After the December 19 protest against CAA and NRC turned violent, resulting in police firing which claimed two lives, the question in everybody’s mind is, why did only Mangaluru flare up, while similar protests in Bengaluru and other places were peaceful, despite the crowds being comparatively bigger.
While the authorities claim that the violence was pre-planned, experts feel there is more to the incident than meets the eye, and a number of issues led to such a situation. Successive governments are to be blamed as they have done nothing to address it.
The issues that need to be taken up on priority are the Hindu-Muslim divide, which is conspicuous in Mangaluru, a sense of alienation among Muslims, politicisation and communalisation of the police force and intelligence failure. Instead of this, whenever such incidents occur, politicians of all hues indulge in a blame game, and do nothing to get to the root of the problem and find a solution to it.
BB Ashok Kumar, who retired as ACP and has worked in sensitive areas like Shivajinagar and Kalasipalyam in Bengaluru, said that inspectors posted in sensitive areas of cities like Mangaluru should be fair, and take people of all groups into confidence. “If a majority of people lose confidence in cops of their area, things will go out hand during difficult situations. But in many cases, cops fail to exercise their duties in a fair and neutral manner, as they are posted as per the recommendations of MLAs or MPs,” he said.
Anand, who retired as Superintendent of Police and has worked in Dakshina Kannada district for several years, feels that if intelligence gathering has to be strong, it is necessary to have a majority of policemen in the constabulary from the same region.
In Bengaluru
Having learnt from the Mangaluru mayhem, Bengaluru City Police managed the mega rally at Quddus Saheb Eidgah on Miller’s Road on December 23 very well, in which around two lakh people from the community had participated.
“There were genuine concerns about the safety of the people, and law and order because of two deaths in Mangaluru. A day before the rally, one man was stabbed to death in sensitive Kalasipalyam. Police had taken the organisers into confidence, and strategically deployed their men in khaki. As a result, there was no law and order problem in Bengaluru,” said a Benglauru police officer.