Prophet Row: Why Howrah Flare-Up Points Finger at West Bengal Police; How It Could Have Been Averted

Massive protests took place in several areas of the Howrah district in West Bengal, including the Kona Expressway, where tyres were burnt, stones were thrown at the police, and vehicles were damaged on June 9 and 10 over the alleged objectionable remarks on Prophet Muhammad. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, transport and urban development minister Firhad Hakim and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar appealed to the protesters to not block the roads, and stop the violence.

News18 spoke to former police and administrative officers to find out what went wrong in the June 10 violence, and how the state machinery could have handled the situation better.

According to some former senior officers, there might be a lack of clarity on part of the police on how much to act, which may have led to the confusion, resulting in the violence.

Professor and political expert Sambit Pal said, “This is a political failure. The political dilemma has percolated into administrative decisions. On one hand, the ruling party deserted minorities of the fear of right-wing politics of the BJP, on the other hand, the ruling party member did not show much interest or failed to control fringe elements in the minority community.”

Some of the experts have also raised questions on why the police did not resort to harder techniques to contain the violence. They say lathi-charge and tear gas would not have controlled the protestors.

Former DG West Bengal, Bhupinder Singh, said, “First job of the police is to maintain law and order come what may. They should have anticipated that such an incident might take place. They should not have allowed this. Once this type of situation aggravates, it becomes difficult. If the intelligence was there with them, they should have done meetings in this region from the very first moment, they should have shown their hard face to the protestors.”

Accountability, therefore, obviously becomes a big factor here, according to experts.

Some have also pointed out that more constables should have been deputed in the protest site, and the civic police should not have been given the job to quell the violence as they are not equipped with handling a law and order situation.

Moreover, the police and the administration should have been alert after the anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protests, which took place in West Bengal last year, experts have stressed.

Tushar Talukdar, former police commissioner in Kolkata, said, “Theoretically, it’s quite easy to say, and practically, it is difficult. When the Babri Masjid demolition took place, I was the commissioner. The incident took place somewhere else but it had its effect in West Bengal because the state is a place where people can express their grievances; people can express. It happened all of a sudden.”

Some experts, however, say the situation over the Prophet remark was put to rest the very next day.

Internet was suspended in Howrah till June 13 as protests turned violent, Rapid Action Force was deployed in parts where the protest was taking place. Several ambulances were stranded due to the protest.

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