What are the similarities between yesterday’s violence and last year’s Jat agitation? In both episodes lives were lost, government and private property was destroyed by arsonists and a helpless government machinery abdicated responsibility.

For days Dera supporters streamed into Panchkula unchecked and unhindered even as it became plain for all to see that this is no ordinary gathering for a ‘darshan’ of their spiritual head. There was menace in their eyes and the threat of violence hung heavy in the air. But could the Manohar Lal Khattar government have been oblivious to it all?  Hard to believe. As the thousands of Dera supporters laid siege to the town and ravaged the green and beautiful parks and open spaces of Haryana’s showpiece town of Panchkula in the run up to yesterday’s verdict which indicted Dera Sacha Sauda head Ram Rahim Singh of rape and criminal intimidation, it was a portent for a repeat of the mayhem  of February 2016.

Complicity and sympathy for the Dera was at two levels. The political, which goes all the way upto the top brass of the BJP which had wooed and fixed support of the Dera during the 2014 Lok Sabha and assembly election in Haryana. After the inept handling of the Jat reservation stir of 2016 by the Khattar government, the Centre was keeping a close watch on developments in Haryana this time around, and again political considerations got the upper hand. Khattar and his cabinet colleagues were getting their cues to soft pedal the Dera threat from the party high command. This is best explained by the statement made by Ram Bilas Sharma, state Education minister who a couple of days ago said, that though Section 144 has been imposed, it does not apply to the “Dera ‘premis’ as they are driven by faith and are peaceful people.” For whom were the prohibitory orders then?  

Sympathy for the Dera also came from lower level police and administration functionaries who allowed the Dera ‘premis’ a free run upto Panchkula. Many are the Dera’s supporters and caste and class considerations played a role in the buildup. 

Though at least 30 people died, several vehicles were burnt and government property was destroyed in the violence, so far the Khattar government appears to have got away unscathed. Not being able to enforce the administrative might of the state and maintain law and order is almost a routine occurrence in Haryana; its citizenry shocked by the complete abandonment of responsibility by the government they voted to power. As a resident of Panchkula I can say there was fear in the streets and residential areas as smoke engulfed the town, gun shots could be heard from different localities and the town looked like it had been through a terrorist attack.

Anger against the Khattar government is rising and the tolerance for the political machinations of the BJP, even among its hard core supporters is fast ebbing.

This is the first time that the BJP has been able to form a government in Haryana on its own. Earlier, it has always been a junior partner of either the Indian National Lok Dal or the now defunct Haryana Vikas Party. The BJP consolidated the non-Jat votes and also received substantial help from the Dera. The Majority Jat community which is used to calling the shots in Haryana was divided between the Lok Dal and the Congress enabling the BJP to win. As the non-Jats got the upper hand in the Khattar government, the infuriated community launched the Jat reservation agitation, flexing its muscles in order to belittle the Khattar government. BJP leaders like Raj Kumar Saini, MP Kurukshetra, gave provocative speeches in the run up to Jat agitation, deliberately provoking Jats. 

In February 2016, just days after incidents of arson subsided, the government set up the Prakash Singh committee headed by a well regarded retired police officer to go into incidents of omission and commission by officialdom that led to the arson and looting and rape during the agitation. The report not just indicted the Khattar government for triggering the unrest through its political posturing and creating a combustible atmosphere in the state, but also made suggestions measures to prevent a recurrence of such incidents. The administrative machinery was criticised for its severe politicisation which the Committee felt blunted its response to restive situations as officialdom is  reluctant to take action until it is sure what its political masters want.  The same unwillingness to respond with alacrity to a developing unrest only because the administration was hampered by the ruling BJP’s gratitude towards the Dera characterised the situation in Panchkula.

Not hard to see why the administrative machinery which was roundly castigated by the Committee, rubbished its report and neither the polity not the police chose to take lessons from it. The results are for all to see. Panchkula which functions like a parallel capital town of Haryana, home to many  government offices, boasts of 24 hour electricity and well designed green parks was ravaged and defiled by the arsonists. Blood on its clean streets, filth in the green spaces and concertina wires at every crossing is evidence of the anarchy that ruled it yesterday.

And, a bumbling government, whose minister had publicly said two days ago  that Section 144 does not apply to Dera supporters is today finding scapegoats by suspending the deputy commissioner of police of Panchkula. But many are now beginning to ask how long will the people of Haryana have to endure the effects of the political considerations of this incompetent government and  its shameful protection of those who helped it to win.