The Congress Party is preparing and projecting its poster boy, Rahul Gandhi, as its next Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 general election. Senior Congress leaders and party workers at the ground level believe that Rahul’s clean secular image will help the party to gain on caste and community vote equations in the upcoming State Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. However, the political situation seems to be taking a surprising turn to haunt the Congress yet again. The major communal riots of Maliyana, Hashimpura, Moradabad and Aligarh had shaken the minorities’ confidence in the Congress. The Babri Mosque demolition badly dented the Congress’s secular image and had a fatal effect on its voter demography in UP and marked the rise of the BJP and other regional parties pan India. Now once again the BJP and regional parties are all set to exploit the political situation created by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s administration.
It was the black day of September 14 when Gopalgarh, a tiny village in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan, witnessed one of the worst massacres in which 10 people belonging to the Meo Muslim community were brutally killed and dozens are missing. BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain who was among the first to visit the carnagesite describes the incident as a blot on theruling Congress Party. After facing criticism for in action Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot now has ordered a CBI probe into the matter and has also accepted the role of policemen in the unprovoked butchery in the State. In a recent development the Rajasthan police have even filed cases against two women MLAs in connection with the case.The BJP is furiously attacking the Congress Government for the Bharatpur riots. It alleges that the Rajasthan Government has mishandled the situationand has failed to protect the rights of the minorities as all those killed were Muslims. A delegation of four BJP MPs, Rajendra Agarwal (Meerut), Devji Patel(Jalore) and Ram Shankar Katheria(Agra), led by its spokesperson, Shahnawaz Hussain, visited the violence hit mosque and the bus stand of Gopalgarhon September 20. Recalling the incident, Hussain told Bureaucracy Today,“We saw the wounded mosque telling its tale of barbarity with blood stains every-where. There were three bullet inside the walls of the mosque whereas 43 on the outer surface of the mosque. Rahul had time to go to Bhatta Parsual in UP for creating media hype but he doesn’t want to visit this riot affected area. It was not acommunal riot but the self-acclaimed protector of secularism, Congress Government, is trying to give communal colour to this incident”.
Shahnawaz Hussain further says,“Now even the police have accepted that 219 rounds were fired during the confrontations killing ten people. And as far as I know, more than eight more peopleare still missing in that village. Some bod-ies were even charred in a nearby well. There should be an inquiry into why the police opened fire on the innocent people. Only suspending the policemen would not help. The Congress Government is trying to lodge some "forged FIRs" in the case and implicate some innocent people. When Ireached the site I realized that the incident was well planned and the Muslims were targeted by police and local authorities”.
However, the police on September 24 registered five FIRs against Imam Abdul Rashid for allegedly disturbing peace through his provocative statements. The opposition BJP has demanded action against him. Clarifying the matter Inspector General of Police Sunil Dutt before his suspension in a statement said, "It was found that the Imam was responsible for issuing in flammatory statements from the mosque through a loudspeaker. We have booked him and others for promoting enmity between the groups on communalgrounds”.
Queries sent by Bureaucracy Today to Rajasthan Director General of Police HC Meena, went unanswered. Though the latest development in this case shows that even before the CBI or a judicial commission begins an inquiry, the mosque wall has been plastered to cover the bullet firing by the policemen.
Bureaucracy Today spoke to Rajasthan Chief Secretary Salaudin Ahmedon the Gopalgarh massacre, The Chief Secretary, however, chose not to divulge additional details stating that “I am not ina position to speak to the media right now, but a commission has been set up for inquiry which will submit its report in the next three months and we have also ordered a CBI inquiry which will start soon”.
The regional parties with secular votebank interests are all set to exploit the Gopalgarh massacre in the forthcoming UP elections. The bureaucrats responsible for the carnage were only suspended and transferred without any criminal action initiated against them. It seems the Congress has not learnt its lessons from the past and has given yet another opportunity to the BJP and regional parties to rise again.
