Bovine Intervention

Is it a preview of the shape of things to come? The Ganj Basauda town in Vidisha, a sleepy district not far from Bhopal, woke up to a normal January 14, the day of Makar Sankranti. With a mix of mainly Hindu traders and some Muslims, the town has seen communal amity for as long as one can remember. But it soon hit headlines for that great centrepiece of Indian communalism: cow slaughter.

News that a local resident, Salim, slaughtered cows for a living had been doing the rounds for some months. There had been innumerable complaints about it in the district where the animal is deeply revered. Of late, local sants had been drawing huge crowds singing praises of the cow. Then suddenly, say observers, the frequency of complaints began going up. When the police demanded evidence, some activists said to belong to the vhp and Bajrang Dal offered to take them to Salim's house while a slaughter was taking place. When the police raided his house, they saw dead cows, animal hides and viscera. While Salim was out of the house, his family was taken into custody.

According to eyewitness accounts, the police then decided to bring the dead animals in an open cart for all to see. A crowd began to gather, grew bigger and soon went berserk. Shops belonging to the minority community were torched. Some Hindu shops were gutted as well. While no one was killed, looting was rampant. Auto mechanics like Qamar Ali and Mohammed Nasir saw their life's earnings go up in flames. Their neighbour, Sunil Jain, also lost his shoe shop in the fire.

Vir Singh Raghuvanshi, a minister in Digvijay's cabinet, was quick to blame the bjp. "It is all the handiwork of the vhp and Bajrang Dal, keeping the state assembly elections in view," he told reporters. But bjp head of Ganj Basauda Suren Jain said, "It is wrong to blame us. We've lived here in peace for decades. Cow slaughter has led to the trouble here." Says D.R. Teniwar, the police officer who conducted the raids, "Cows and bulls were recovered from Salim's house but I haven't heard any complaints before this."

Digvijay ordered an immediate inquiry. On prima facie evidence, 45 people were taken into custody. The main accused is Bajrang Dal activist S. Yadav. While business is returning to normal, Section 144 has been imposed to keep public peace. Locals say the Hindu Jagaran Manch has been organising a series of road "kathas and jagarans on the main road to reawaken the Hindu mind" in the last few months. Congress leaders now fear similar incidents in the poll run-up. At a police-public seminar attended by MPs in Bhopal last week, Digvijay called upon the force to deal with professional trouble-makers severely. "You have my entire backing," he said. He particularly asked them to "educate the lower-level policemen" to keep communal harmony and prevent the likes of Salim from giving the Sangh a handle to foment communal trouble.