Ramanavami riots expose widening communal faultlines in country
The Hazaribagh Ramanavami Mahasamiti (organizing committee) president Kunal Yadav condemned the incident, and said “See, some of the akharas of the procession take this route, but there had never been an altercation earlier. This was a first. We have told the administration to punish those found guilty. There were some anti-social elements in the procession who carried out this mischief, to vitiate the atmosphere. I believe that nobody’s religious sentiments should be hurt.”
The third incident pertains to the Haldipokhar village of the Potka block in the East Singhbhum district. “The Ramanavami procession passed next to a mosque which was not on the official route sanctioned by the administration. The police and a part of the procession were trying to prevent people from taking the mosque route, but another group diverted the procession by force and indulged in provocative sloganeering. This led to a counter-protest from the mosque side, and some stones were pelted. Then, stones were hurled by both the sides. The police have now brought the situation under control,” said District SSP Prabhat Kumar.
In Gujarat, similar clashes were witnessed in Vadodara wherein stones were hurled at two Ramanavami processions on Thursday (April 6th) wherein some persons were injured in one of the incident. According to reports, stones were thrown at mosques and houses of Muslims. While the first incident took place near Panjrigar mohalla in the Fatehpura area in the afternoon, the second incident took place in nearby Kumbharwada in the evening. The procession that came under attack in Panjrigar mohalla had been organised by VHP.
The town of Una in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district was gripped by communal tension after an alleged hate speech against a minority community by a Hindu social and political activist Kajal Hindustani at a Ramanavami event on Thursday (April 1st). After 10 days on Monday (10 April), the right-wing activist Kajal, was sent to 14-day judicial custody after her arrest in the case of alleged “hate speech”.
In Maharashtra on the eve of Ramanavami, in Kiradpura area of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (erstwhile Aurangabad), a mob of 500-600 people allegedly threw stones at police personnel near a prominent Ram temple. The violence left at least 10 of them injured, while 13 police vehicles were also torched. In retaliation, the police used tear gas and plastic bullets. In Mumbai’s Malad region, Muslims and Hindus clashed during a Ramanavami procession after some of them objected to loud music being played on speakers.
