#cheap #dirty #mentality of bjp In Bettiah, provocative messages sparked communal clashes Prashant Jha A traditional Hindu religious procession on Sunday night, on the occasion of Nag Panchami in Bettiah in north Bihar, turned violent. There was stone-pelting and clashes between sections of Hindus and Muslims. Local government vehicles, of the District Magistrate and the Superintendent, were burnt down. And a curfew had to be imposed. While there were multiple versions about the exact trigger for the incidentThe Hindunow has in its possession photographs, which show that the procession had a strong, explicit, political subtext, with provocative political messages. This allegedly infuriated sections of Muslim residents in a particular area, leading to clashes. Lathi-wielding men of the MahabirAkhada led a convoy of tractors, which had individuals carrying political placards, mocking United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar suggesting they were all catering to ‘minority votes’. In one tractor, a man, identified as‘Nitish government’ is seen holding a message, “We are even ready to make minority voters ourson-in law”. Another man, pretending to be the ‘Congress government’, holds a placard stating, “For minority votes, we will put the country at stake”. And a third man is dressed in alungiand a skull-cap, obvious markers of a Muslim identity, with a sheet plastered on his chest, identifying him as “minority vote-bank’. A man pretending to be Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is sitting on a chair, clad inkurta-pajamawith a slash of saffron, watching the other three figures. The domestic politics was interspersed with mocking the government’s foreign policy approach. In a second open vehicle, a poster at the back reads,“Indian politics over the continuous killing of Indian soldiers by Pakistan.” In a reference to his first statement in Parliament last week, a man who is identified as Defence Minister A.K. Antony holds a message stating, “Terrorists had come in the uniform of the Pakistani Army.” A turbaned man, who is ostensibly Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has his mouth sealed with a tape and is bending over, with hands folded, even as awoman identified as Ms. Gandhi has a stick pointing to him. Traditionally, these processions are aggressive, with participants displaying their martial arts skills and carrying sticks and other traditional arms. But this kind of ‘blatantly provocative political content’, according to local observers, was a new element. When the motley crowd of policemen on the beat saw the posters, an officer apparently asked the Hindu activists to remove it but they were snubbed and the crowd moved on. But when it entered Jora Innar chowk, a densely-populated area with a mixed settlement of Hindu trading castes and Muslims, very close to the Kalibagh temple — anarea traditionally believed to be a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh stronghold — the situation turned tense and stone-pelting began. Abhay Mohan Jha, a senior journalist based in the town, toldThe Hinduover the phone, “This isa clear sign of politics getting married to religious festivities. This is an obvious result of the recent split of the National Democratic Alliance split in Patna and the social schisms developingon the ground. But it was highly avoidable since the potential for trouble was obvious. The police should have been more alert.”
Posted on: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 07:02:32 +0000