Udaipur beheading: Ashok Gehlot must crack whip, free policing from politics

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By Manish Anand

New Delhi, June 28: Following the national outcries against the sickening beheading of a tailor Kanhaiya Lal in broad daylight in Udaipur, the accused Gaus Mohammad and Riaz were held by the Rajasthan police, while the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is slated to take up the case to probe the case under the anti-terror laws.

Rajasthan has been a communal hotbed in the recent months. Some of the key districts of the state, including Jodhpur, have witnessed measurers such as suspension of internet to tame the communally surcharged situation in the state.

The modus operandi of the chilling killing of the tailor bears the signature of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Its breakaway factions are known to be running terror modules in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and it’s yet to be confirmed if it has sleeper cells in India as well.

Now that the NIA is poised to take up the Udaipur killing case, the truth is expected to come out in a few weeks.

But there were warning signs in Rajasthan. The state has been witnessing communal violence, forcing the state administration to take restrictive measures.

In areas such as Jodhpur, Bhilwara and Karauli districts witnessed communal violence recently.

But the state Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, one of the most seasoned politicians from the ranks of the Congress, sought to give political colours to the incidents. He has been quoted by the local media that “the Opposition BJP is stoking the communal violence in its bid to polarize the state to win the Assembly elections, due next year”.

Gehlot has also be quoted by the local media having termed violence in Jodhpur as “chota-mota (small)” incident.

Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had countered Gehlot, saying that the police were stone-pelted, women were molested in the incidents which the Chief Minister was calling “small”.

Indeed, this is a serious issue. If the Chief Minister makes light of the regular occurrence of communal violence incidents, the sleeper cells of elements such as ISIS get emboldened to carry out their works without catching the eyes of the law enforcement agencies.

Gehlot has lately bene quite busy while spending much of his time in the national capital to rally the Congress workers against the questioning of the former chief of his party Rahul Gandhi. He should pay attention to the law and order situation and its collapse cannot be rationalized by any alibi.

On Tuesday also, Gehlot sought to drag politics into the sensitive issue of the Udaipur killing by calling upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Home Minister Amit Shah to appeal to the youth in the state to maintain peace. This amounts to trivializing the state administration and its functioning.

He has an unabating run-in with his rival Sachin Pilot in the state. But that cannot be an excuse in loosening the grip over the law and order situation in the state