BHUBANESWAR: Barely days after Supreme Court laid down a set of comprehensive guidelines against mob violence and mandated States to create preventive mechanism, Odisha Police spectacularly failed at Puri on Wednesday.
Uncontrolled mobs ran riot on the Grand Road and unleashed mayhem under the guise of a bandh called to protest introduction of queue system for darshan at the Jagannath temple.What exactly went wrong? A posse of policemen, present at Lion’s Gate, made a vanishing act as the mob gathered at the main entrance of the shrine. For next three to four hours, it was a free for all with no cops in sight. As locals would narrate, this was first such complete breakdown of law and order in the Pilgrim Town in the last 20 years.
Given Puri’s lay-out and location of Grand Road, controlling mob situation is not at all a difficult task. All it requires is basic police intelligence and preparedness. As things panned out, both the aspects were conspicuously missing. There was barely more than two platoons of police deployed which eventually proved too little for the violence that the bandh triggered.
Entry into Sri Jagannath Temple by local residents of Puri is an extremely emotive issue, such is their attachment to the presiding deity. For the last three to four days, a deep sense of discontentment was brewing among the people of Puri and waiting to explode but the administration remained blissfully unaware. Or, did they choose to just look away!
What was shocking, the rapid action force of the State Police took five hours to reach Puri, from Bhubaneswar, which is barely 65 km away. While it should have been the first to be deployed, all the outfit did was march around the Holy Town after things had calmed down.
To expect a bandh on such a sensitive issue to run smooth and not be able to foresee outrage in Puri cannot be an excuse. It was pure inefficiency of men in charge and at the ground, it was poor planning. The entire episode has signified a systemic weakening of basic intelligence apparatus across the districts.
Before starting the “dhadi darshan,” the system should have been allowed to be debated in the town well in advance. Instead, it was rushed. Local MLA and Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Maheswar Mohanty had openly voiced his resentment which should have been heeded to and carefully read by the administration which it miserably failed to. Such an issue could have been tackled with tactfulness by local political leadership but was not. Why? That is a big question.
By the way, why is the State’s Law Minister missing in action? Are not issues relating to the shrine not part of his department’s responsibility?
With elections drawing close, Puri violence should be a warning message for the State Government. Like it happened during the panchayat polls last year, violence will only escalate with political parties taking each other head on. It may not give the top administration - police in particular - any time for damage control if it does not pull up its socks now. If a mob of 500 in Puri cannot be reined in, guess what could be in store a few months hence?