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Journalism of Courage
SONGADH, Feb 3: The second day of the four-day bandh called by the Sangh Parivar ended in a shambles, with Sangh leaders directing their local cadres to tone down the agitation. An effigy-burning demonstration today and a chakka jam planned for tomorrow have been called off.
The agitation is against the police’s heavy-handedness’ with Bajrang Dal activists following clashes over the weekend, and seeks to secure DSP B D Vaghela’s suspension.
However, this didn’t cut much ice with the local cadres, who called the affair a farce’. They made their displeasure known in no uncertain terms, hurling a string of abuses at the BJP leadership. Soon after the decision was announced, they broke into small groups for heated discussions and the leaders who had come from outside had a difficult time pacifying them.
“We were expecting a lot to happen and were prepared for the worst”, said one particularly agitated member. “The leadership has insulted Songadh. Either the call should not have been given, or the effigy should have been burnt.”
Local Bajrang Dal leader P K Shah admitted that all was not well within the Sangh. “Vast differences have cropped up between the BD, BJP and VHP.” Just a few hours before, he had said, with considerably more gusto, “I am the sole spirit behind the agitation. I don’t take orders from anyone”.
The scenes in the evening were an anticlimax to the passions that had been on show throughout the day. To begin with, the townfolk woke up to the reality of a shortage of essentials, a reality that hit harder because the shops were closed. “When you are made to starve, you get the message loud and clear”, an activist said. Neither vegetables, nor milk is available in the town; the resale market is seven kms away.
It took only a small cardboard placard, placed by the BD in front of a bust of Sayajirao Gaekwad, to make shopkeepers down their shutters. In fact, the bust has come to symbolise what is wrong with the town. On its head is a demand for dismissal of the erring’ DSP who let loose his army of policemen on hapless BD volunteers’. Ironically, the pedestal still carries the appeal to Hindus issued when the Hindu Jagaran Manch held an anti-Christian rally at Tokarva on December 25. Completing the frame is the notice of Sec 144, banning the assembly of more than four people in one place.
The atmosphere next to the Songadh Police station was electric. BD and VHP volunteers carried out their agitation almost bang in front of the prohibitory order and watched by armed policemen. They stood and watched, not showing any sign of acting, not even when the fiery speeches were being made. Not even when Shah said, “If police lay their hands on you I’ll bring them before you and beat them with chappals.” Later, police officials said they were satisfied that PK’, as they call him, behaved well.
