Mathura violence: Punish the guilty

The dramatic violence perpetrated in Mathura on Saturday by members of a cult that goes by the name of Swadheen Bharat Andolan, and claims to be waiting for the emergence of Subhas Chandra Bose, deserves to be condemned in the strongest terms. Firm action must be taken by the UP government to bring the murderers — and the cult leadership — to book. When the Mathura police went to Nehru Bagh in the city to evict the thousands of cult groupies, who had been in illegal occupation of forest department lands for over two years, they opened fire on the men in uniform.

Apparently automatic weapons and bombs were used, catching the police by total surprise. The city SP and an SHO were killed. Such open defiance of the law in a prominent city, which being a major Hindu pilgrim centre attracts devotees from around the country, besides international tourists, is hard to imagine, especially when the criminal action in question is not perpetrated by terrorists, known criminals or gangsters.

Even so, it is evident that there has been a failure of intelligence, as chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has acknowledged. The police seemed unaware of the kinds of weapons the criminal cult members came out with. It is frightening to think that such a large cache of arms was stored by a civilian group without the authorities being in the know. That is a new dimension that needs to be taken very seriously indeed.

Besides being a major centre of pilgrimage that is made into a communal flashpoint from time to time by the Hindu right wing, Mathura houses a major oil refinery and is home to a strike corps of the Indian Army. Undesirable elements cannot be permitted to have access to high-grade weaponry with which to cause mayhem anywhere, especially in a sensitive location like Mathura. Opponents of the Samajwadi Party, which presides over the UP government, have appropriately drawn attention to the poor law and order situation that generally prevails in the state.

The law is violated with impunity. The BJP in particular needs to note, however, that last year another cult had wreaked similar havoc in Haryana, which is run by the saffron party. In northern India, many religio-cultural cults abound. These tend to have pretty large followings of poorer people running into lakhs. Typically, political parties try to befriend such outfits so as not to annoy potential voters. This is why criminality by such bodies is tolerated by the politico-administrative establishment. It is time this changed.