The scared look on the faces of those uniformed men said it all. The disbelief at being battered black and blue in the hands of a murderous mob, even fired at, and the simmering discontent at not having the "permission" from the police top brass to retaliate were apparent a little later, when the first contingent of media personnel managed to get those reactions on camera.
By that time, however, the Kaliachak police station premise was already in a shambles… part of it gutted, almost entirely ransacked, documents looted and burnt and as many as 35 vehicles in the neighbourhood including police vehicles torched. The area, in the north Bengal district of Malda bordering Bangladesh is known to be a hub of criminal activities including smuggling, running of counterfeit currency rackets, opium farming and human trafficking. No surprises then that the police station would have housed records of such organised crimes and their destruction would benefit criminals who may be internationally connected.
Yet police remained silent when mobs went berserk and continued violence for hours. Official reason: retaliation could lead to a communal flare up.
The strength of gathering on the Sunday afternoon of January 3 at Kaliachak taxi stand by members of a minority community to protest comments about Prophet Muhammad made by Kamlesh Tiwari, a Hindu Mahasabha leader in Delhi, was clearly beyond expectations of the Malda district police. There wasn’t enough police to manage a crowd surpassing a lakh in case they spiralled out of control. And when that’s exactly what happened, the men in uniform were scurrying for cover.
The area remains tense with reports of sporadic violence still being received from adjacent areas. Police now say, albeit in a hushed tone, that the attack may well have been pre-planned.
A suo motu FIR lodged by the police a day later named 30 suspects responsible for causing the riot. 10 were arrested, six of who walked on bail soon after. On January 6, a state BJP unit, keen to cash in on the ensuing volatility, were stopped from reaching Kaliachak and turned back from Malda town. The delegation included the party’s sole MLA in the state, Samik Bhattacharya. BJP has now confirmed that Union home minister Rajnath Singh will visit Malda on 18 January to take a stock of the situation.
The BJP has accused Mamata Banerjee of resorting to minority appeasement. That’s not new in Bengal. And, I dare say, neither elsewhere in the country. Nothing wrong in it either. Because protecting interests of the minorities is guaranteed by the Constitution.
But the state’s chief minister also has other considerations on her platter. The trading and cross trading of political charges is largely redundant in this context because this essentially boils down to the basic question of maintaining law and order. Nothing can come at its cost, least of all the alleged appeasement. It sends wrong signals to mischief makers not just across the state but also, in the present context of terror, of the entire country. The tight rope walk of securing minority vote bank and establishing rule of law is at times a precarious balance. And Mamata Banerjee in this context may not have done it well.
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