Few riots have been more predictable than the widespread violence across northern India in the wake of the conviction of a so-called Godman for rape. Hence there can be no underplaying the criminal laxity of the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government in Haryana, and especially of the Chief Minister who holds the Home portfolio.
Like a deer trapped in headlights, Khattar sat by and allowed an explosive situation to build over several days and failed to act when he was required to. It isn’t enough that he be asked to go; he must be made judicially accountable for the loss of life and property, indeed for his gross ineptitude. Rightly did the Punjab and Haryana High Court observe, “CM is the Home Minister.
Why have you allowed people to assemble for seven days. CM is protecting them.” These are strong words and those responsible for Khattar’s continuance in office after serial acts of incompetence, including the way he handled the Jat agitation last year, must pay immediate heed. The judiciary has played a stellar role in the affair ~ from resisting pressures and ensuring justice was meted out to the Dera Sacha Sauda chief to asking tough questions of the administration.
If only it had taken an additional step on Thursday, and stopped pronouncement of judgment in the criminal case until it was satisfied that necessary steps had been taken to preserve the rule of law, matters might not have come to such a pass. But that is now behind us and it would be pointless to belabour the point.
The link between religion and politics is a sin that cuts across party lines. “Godmen” have long enjoyed unwarranted influence ~ be it Dhirendra Brahmchari or Chandraswami. Obscurantist cult figures play a disproportionate role in public life.
There are those such as BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj who hold a brief for the Dera chief by saying that his conviction was an assault on Indian culture. It is not enough to say the MP is given to controversy; it is time the government cut the cord between obscurantism and politics and brought each such cult under scrutiny.
If crooked NGOs and corporates can be targeted, why not such organisations? Governments, not just the present one, make much of cracking down on unaccounted wealth yet these cults have amassed fortunes, prime real estate, established luxury enclaves ~ and of what goes on behind the rich tapestry the less said the better.
In parallel, every political figure who courted the indulgence of the Dera chief and happily shared public space with him even after he had been charged with a crime as serious as rape deserves to be named and shamed. The incidents of the weekend are a wake-up call; a New India cannot have space for such charlatans.