THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It may seem strange but there is a coincidence in the serious lapse on the part of the police in the Poonthura riots of 1992 and the Cheriyathura police firing last Sunday. The repetition of the lapse after 17 years is because of the laxity on the part of the government to implement the recommendations of the Aravindaksha Menon Commission that had probed the Poonthura riots.
The absence of senior police officers on the scene and the lack of coordination between the police and district officials that had worsened the situation in Poonthura were repeated in Cheriyathura.
The Poonthura riots, an aftermath of the Babari Masjid demolition, occurred in July 1992. The Aravindakshan Menon Commission had pointed to serious lapses on the part of the police, especially delay in action.
The commission had stated in its report that during the breakout of the clashes on July 19, 1992, the then DGP C Subramaniam was in Chennai without submitting proper leave application whereas the next seniormost officer and then ADGP (Intelligence) Jayaram Padickal had not acted. Incidentally, City Police Commissioner S Gopinath and IG Vinson M Paul were not on duty when the Cheriyathura firing took place.
The commission had said there was a lack of rapport between the district administration and the police.
‘‘It looks that the rapport between the Police Commissioner and the District Magistrate in Thiruvananthapuram is wanting,’’ said the report tabled in the Assembly in September 2006. In Cheriyathura, the police allegedly opened fire without consulting senior officials or the district administration.
The Poonthura Commission also suggested that the District Magistrate (Collector) should collect the report on the law and order situation from the SPs regularly and discuss the matter. The commission also suggested that there should be proper screening while deploying police officials in riot-affected areas.
No sooner had the din of the Poonthura riot died down came the Vizhinjam riot claiming two lives in clashes between two sections over a piece of land. The R Gopalakrishna Pillai Commission that probed the incident had recommended a set of measures to avert tension in the coastal belt and instill communal harmony. Some of the recommendations of the commission were establishing schools and colleges in the coastal area, making education up to SSLC compulsory, providing financial aid for higher studies to children of fishermen and introducing social welfare, job-oriented schemes for the families of fishermen.
The commission also suggested setting up a permanent police picket, a bomb squad and a fire station in the locality and a ban on the use of explosives. Besides the initial facesaving measures, the governments that came into existence from time to time had not taken any serious efforts to look into these recommendations or initiate steps to instill communal harmony across the coastal belt. The fate of various recommendations of the Thomas P Joseph inquiry commission on the Marad riots to instill communal harmony in the coastal belt is also not different.