After Nellie in Assam last year, Bhiwandi in Maharashtra now. Indeed, Bhiwandi is a worse horror even if the number of victims is much smaller. Nothing like this has ever been witnessed in independent India after the holocaust following partition. The psychology behind the crime is so alien as to be incomprehensible. To say that communal clashes have become virtually endemic in this industrial suburb of Bombay is to say little of any relevance in the present context. The roasting alive of over a score of fellow Indians is not another communal clash. It is materialization of hell on earth. While the horror is a fact, it is impossible to believe that this could have happened in any civilized society. It feels like a terrible dream. But we have witnessed an even worse horror – the horror of indifference to the tragedy in Bhiwandi.
If our moral sensibilities had not been so benumbed as they appear to be, two developments would have taken place on Saturday afternoon when the gruesome crime on the outskirts of Bhiwandi became public knowledge. First, the news would have sent such powerful shock waves at least in Bombay and its environs that even the worst communalists and gangsters acting in concert with them would have abandoned their plans to kill and burn. Nothing of the sort happened. In fact, the situation in Bombay took a turn for the worse on Saturday night so much so that at one stage it looked as if the police would not be able to cope with it and the authorities would have to call in the army. Secondly the chief minister would have owned the moral responsibility for the tragedy, one of the most shameful in our recent history, and offered his and his government’s resignation. Instead, he criticized some Urdu papers for the role they had played in inciting communal passions. This criticism might be justified but it is irrelevant and, by design of otherwise, it seeks to cover up the administration’s failure.
We have supported Mr. Vasantdada Patil in the past in the conviction that in the circumstances of the ruling Congress party he is the best bet for the state. But the pertinent point now is that in the wake of the horror on the outskirts of Bhiwandi, he should have regarded it obligatory on his part to send in his papers to the governor. Perhaps it did not even occur to him that he should do so. This is another indication of the distance we have travelled – in the wrong direction – since independence. This is another expression of the deadening of our moral sensibilities and in a sense it is as frightening as the roasting alive of fellow citizens in Bhiwandi.
It can be argued that such a gesture on Mr. Patil’s part would not have served any useful purpose. That would be a ridiculous argument. For one thing, the gesture would have been meaningful in itself as evidence that there are still politicians in this country who recognise such a thing as moral responsibility. For another, it would have helped dissipate the atmosphere of cynicism and aroused the conscience of others. Mr. Lal Bahadur Shastri is still remembered for his resignation as minister for railway following a rail accident in the fifties. As it happened, Mr. Patil’s responsibility can be pinpointed. To begin with, he allowed a Shiv Jayanti procession in Bhiwandi and thus reversed a 14-year-old policy. And then his administration ignored the heated controversy between a section of the Urdu press and the Marathi press over the Shiv Sena chief, Mr.Bal Thackeray’s allegedly anti-Muslim utterance and the tension building as a result of it. So he just cannot disown responsibility for what has happened.
Wider Malaise
But Mr. Patil’s behaviour is symptomatic of a wider malaise. Political life in Maharashtra, as in much of the rest of India, has touched newer and newer depths in recent years. Two comparisons come to mind – one of Nero playing music while Rome burnt and the other of the last days of the Moghul empire when princes, princesses and courtiers indulged in intrigue and merry making as the British advanced and consolidated their rule. In place of the British, we have now the forces of anarchy on the march and the response of the ruling elite is very similar. Thus when large parts of Bombay and adjoining towns were ready to explode into flames, the state Congress leaders were wholly preoccupied with their factional infighting and, of course, the loot that has become part of government these days. So only the innocent can be surprised that the administration failed to wake up to the gravity of the threat to law and order even when following an alleged insult to Mr. Bal Thackeray by a Congress legislator in Parbhani, different parts of Bombay were closed for two successive days on Wednesday and Thursday before riots broke out on Friday. Indeed, it is irrelevant to speak of an administration in Maharashtra. Such a thing ceased to exist a couple of years ago as a result of the activities of political bosses at the helm.
In such a situation it is only natural that the ordinary citizens faced with threats to their lives and properties should look up to Mrs. Gandhi and the army to come to their rescue. We ourselves have been flooded with pleas that we urge the Prime Minister to come to Bombay at once and post the army in troubled localities. The performance of the Maharashtra police has been far from impressive. We do not give credence to reports that policemen have in certain cases sided with the marauders – they have invariably come from outside the affected localities – but the evidence of their lack of enthusiasm is too impressive for us to dismiss. Perhaps the murder of a sub-inspector of police and a head constable by anti-social elements out of personal vendetta on Friday might account for it partly. But be that as it may, the whole country has an enormous stake in an early return of normalcy to Bombay, the nation’s industrial-commercial heart. The metropolis has hovered on the brink of a precipice for three long days. We cannot afford to see it collapse into the yawning abyss. Such a tragedy must be averted whatever it takes to do so, including an extensive deployment of the army. Too much damage has already been done to the confidence of the people in the efficacy of government. There is no time to lose.