(The Hindu
Sep 11, 2006)
Editorial
Lessons from Malegaon
The fact that Friday's terror attack in Malegaon did not instantly translate into communal riots in that divided and volatile town is no cause for euphoria. For the ground realities give little cause for reassurance that those who perpetrated this atrocity will not succeed in triggering more death and destruction. Although not every town that has a mix of Hindus and Muslims is necessarily a communal tinderbox, there are specific reasons for the perception that Malegaon is one. At the root of the problem is the communal divide combining with the abject neglect of infrastructure in a town that once had a thriving powerloom industry. Today, the 800,000 residents of Malegaon have little by way of basic services. The absence of medical facilities became painfully evident on Friday when the grievously wounded had to be sent 55 kilometres away to the nearest decent hospital in Dhule. The fact that some relatives of blast victims refused to accept monetary compensation and instead demanded that the government provide civic infrastructure reinforces the argument that the causes of alienation from the system often lie in the lack of provision of such facilities. This feeling of neglect by the state emerged as one of the factors responsible for violence in several parts of Maharashtra in the recent past. A Statewide survey mapping violence-affected areas in Maharashtra conducted two years ago by the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation, a non-governmental organisation, identified 20-odd small or big towns and villages, including Malegaon. Of these, five had seen serious communal riots, and 16 had witnessed communal incidents in the preceding two years. Although the causes of the outbreak were specific to the area, the common concerns that emerged were the way local politicians exploited these clashes, the perceived partisanship of the police, and the belief among the local population that the government did not care about their needs.
Malegaon also reminds us of the importance of dealing with the past instead of trying to bury it. The last major communal clash in this town took place in 2001. The Maharashtra Government instituted an inquiry commission headed by a retired judge of the Bombay High Court, K.N. Patil, to look into the causes of the riots. Although the report has been ready for some time, it is yet to be made public; nor has any action been taken. Earlier this year, a bomb-making factory was uncovered in Nanded when an explosion in a house killed two Bajrang Dal activists. There have also been attacks on mosques in Parbhani, Purna, and Jalna, which investigators believe were carried out by Bajrang Dal operatives linked to the Nanded terror cell. The challenge has been acknowledged in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly by no less a person than Home Minister R. R. Patil. Yet the cases have not been pursued with any kind of diligence by the State authorities, presumably on the reasoning that any action that can be depicted as `anti-Hindu' might play into the hands of the Shiv Sena and other Hindutva organisations. It is imperative that the investigation into the terrorist attack at Malegaon be even-handed and make a swift breakthrough.