Mathura madness: a story of mishandling from tee off

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government headed by Akhilesh Yadav has mishandled Mathura case right from the word go.Various reasons including ill-advice by seniors are being given for it .For the opposition, particularly the Bhatiya Janata Party, it is a god-sent opportunity, mainly because of assembly elections which are less than a year away.

To analyse the situation let us start from the beginning. A group of people sought permission for two days to hold a protest rally in a park, Jawaharbagh, in Mathura about two years ago. The group which was small in number overstayed. Gradually the number grew as also the group’s activities. No action was taken. Expectedly, it emboldened the group to act at will.

It built houses, collected arms and ammunition ,created different facilities for group members and indulged in illegal and illegal activities. Nobody from the state capital down to the district town bothered. What is worse, the authorities remained inactive not for a small period of time but for full two years. They might have slept over the issue little longer had the court not given a wake-up call.

What is more, when they went into action they were not well-prepared or equipped so much so that they could not save even a senior police officer like the superintendent of police. They had not done proper recce either. For, had they done it they would have known that they have sophisticated arms and could attack the police party. Arms training to members of the group was possibly also unknown to them.

Clearly, whatever was done was done after a considerable lapse of time and without proper planning.No one in particular can be blamed as is being done by some opposition leaders and anti anti-Shivpal Yadav forces. It is a failure of the government machinery or of the system. If one man has to be named in this connection the name is Akhilesh Yadav. Either he did not have the full knowledge of the developments there or he did not have courage to defy his elders who ill-advised him. In either case accusing figure has to be pointed at him

Some other developments are equally baffling. If the district administration had not given the real picture action should have been taken immediately after the violence. Bur it was done after almost a week .And what was the action? Transfer of top officials which is routine work done after every incident. So it was neither new nor praiseworthy.

A faux pas was committed in some other areas too. For instance, inquiry into the incident. Decision regarding it was changed thrice. In fact the first decision to make an inquiry was changed within 12 hours. First Agra commissioner was asked to look into it and then Aligarh man was given the job. Scrapping both, a few days later, a judicial commission was appointed. It has been given two months’ time to complete the inquiry and submit the report which is a difficult task. As it has happened in other such inquiries, time will be extended and extended further. And by the time the report is out, the issue may go out of focus. Secondly, no action has been taken on many reports submitted by inquiry commissions. It may meet the same fate.

This brings into light the opposition demand for a CBI probe. There is no plausible explanation so far why the government did not go for it. The decision could be politically-motivated. Since the demand was also backed by union home minister the state government might have gone for the other option. The agency has unearthed many scams and might have been useful in this case too. Clearly, there has been questionable actions all the way.