Lives lost in Nuh violence, a failure on the part of the Haryana police and government?

A report of the India Today has clarified the role that inaction of Haryana CID (Crime Investigation Department) and the Haryana government played as communal violence gripped Nuh, Haryana. In the words of Srinivas Bhadravathi Venkata, National President of the Indian Youth Congress, the said report “दूध का दूध, पानी का पानी करने काफी है”

The report contains an interview of Vishvajeet, a District Inspector, CID, who is responsible for gathering information and intelligence across Nuh. During the interview, Vishwajeet claimed that he had sent a formal warning to the local authorities regarding potential trouble during the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) annual procession. It was purported by him that his department’s specific warnings against the 130 km long religious procession passing through Muslim dominated Nuh were completely ignored.

In the clip showing his interview, Vishvajeet stated that the CID had input that when the VHP will be taking out their procession, raising slogans and brandishing their swords, will surely have an encounter with the locals of Nuh. He specifically provided that all these inputs had been submitted to the government at least 10 days before the procession was taken out.

It was then claimed by Vishvajeet that his findings on the potential violence at Nuh were not acted upon by the law enforcement authorities. He provided that “The senior officials thought they could manage the situation and disperse the crowds in case anything untoward took place. They took it lightly. They thought they could convince the locals that Monu Manesar did not show up.”

He further provided “It only took a rumour to spread that Monu Manesar was present at the procession. The locals were prepared to stop the procession from proceeding, they wanted to block its route.”

Additionally, Vishvajeet provided that it just took one hour for the build-up of the violence. He also specified that the locals who were involved in the violence were between the ages of 17-22. He stated “No one was mature amongst them.”

Local police remained clueless, overpowered by the numbers present in the crowd

A different story was told by Kishan Kumar, the Station House Officer (SHO) of the police station under whose jurisdiction the communal violence at Nuh had taken place. As provided by him to India Today, he had received no intimation regarding any potential trouble at the procession.

As provided by Kumar, there were less than 100 police personnel available alongside the religious procession. On being asked by the interviewer whether any information was made available to the local police by the CID regarding the potential violence, he said that no such information was received by them.

Kumar stated “We were not informed about any need for addition reinforcements. Had we known beforehand about this situation, we could have acted. Had we known, we could have stopped the procession. The procession was not an emergency exercise that had to take place. We had no such information, else we would have alerted the higher authorities.”

In a separate interview with the India Today team, Kumar had explained how the available force at the scene of the procession were spread too thin across the route. He provided “The available forces was all on duty. We were spread across the entire route.  The route kept on expanding. While the procession kept on expanding, the force remained the same, there was no extra personnel. The picket points increased from 10-20 to 200, the force fell short.”

The complete report can be viewed here:

Who is to be blamed for the deaths?

On August 2, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had stated that social security and peace was the foremost priority of the state government, and yet, crucial information on impending violence was not paid any heed by the government. As can be deduced from the aforementioned investigative report, significant information regarding potential disharmony and communal clashes were ignored by the law enforcement and the state government. Till August 2, the death toll die due to the violence in Nuh and Haryana had mounted to six, with multiple people having suffered injuries and loss of properties. A Mosque in Gurugram had been vandalised and burned too. A situation that could have been avoided led to the death of two Home Guard jawans and four civilians.

The blame game has started, with the local police stating that they were unaware and the CID stating that the information provided by them was ignored. While the “miscreants” cause the violence are being chased and held liable, attention should also be focussed on the role played by the authorities and the state government. There remains no doubt that administration failed to control the violence. Even as tell-tale signs of a communal divide were present, the same were ignored by local authorities, law enforcements and the state government.

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