Rioting in Jodhpur over flag; Net off, curfew imposed

JODHPUR/JAIPUR: Violence ignited by one community apparently objecting to the other putting up a religious flag alongside freedom fighter Balmukund Bissa’s statue at Jodhpur’s Jalori Gate on the eve of Eid left at least 16 people wounded in overnight clashes that briefly flared up again on Tuesday morning.
Areas within the jurisdiction of 10 police stations in the desert city spent the day of the festival under a curfew and a mobile internet ban as the Ashok Gehlot government scurried to douse the flames in Rajasthan’s latest communal flashpoint. By evening, the police had arrested 97 suspects for the violence that had started around midnight on Monday. “Adequate forces have been deployed in the main areas as well as the narrow lanes of the violence-affected zones of Jodhpur," said minister of state for home Rajendra Singh Yadav, part of a four-member team deputed by CM Gehlot to oversee the administration's effort to restore normalcy.

Gehlot, who turned 71 on Tuesday, cancelled all celebrations and reached the CMO for a meeting with senior government officials first thing in the morning. Besides Yadav, the CM picked minister Subhash Garg, additional chief secretary (home) Abhay Kumar and additional DGP (law and order) Hawa Singh Ghumaria to take a helicopter to Jodhpur immediately and report to him on the evolving situation there.

Sources said the trigger for the initial altercation that snowballed into rioting was some people questioning why Eid revellers had put up a flag at the same roundabout from where a saffron flag hoisted on Parshuram Jayanti had allegedly gone missing. Both sides pelted each other with stones and vandalised vehicles parked outside homes and markets. One group torched a motorbike outside the house of Sursagar MLA Suryakanata Vyas. Four cops were among those wounded in the rioting that raged for some time after midnight.
“A criminal, irrespective of religion, caste or class, must not be spared if found to be involved in criminal activities,” CM Gehlot said in his first reactions to the violence.
Union jal shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said at a presser in Jodhpur that the administration had been “taking one-sided action”. He said BJP would organise sit-ins outside police stations if the police didn’t register individual FIRs against the guilty.
“Due to appeasement politics, law and order in the state is under threat. It was clear from the Karauli violence (on April 2) that such incidents take place under government protection. Why does this type of incident happen only under Congress governance?” said state BJP president Satish Poonia.
Gaj Singh, scion of the erstwhile Jodhpur royal family, termed communal violence in the city “a dark spot in our history of brotherhood”. He said his grandfather Maharaja Umaid Singh considered Hindus and Muslims “as his eyes” and all religious celebrations were observed by both communities.