With barely one week since the horrific communal riot in Haryana’s Nuh that claimed six lives and injured more than 20 police personnel, uneasy calm prevails in the district. After 55 FIRs and 141 arrests later in the incident, Nuh, which is just 72 km from Delhi, the Vishva Hindu Parishad is already preparing for another ‘Jalabhishek Yatra’, on the same route that started off the violence.
The VHP has confirmed to News18 that another procession, which goes by the name ‘Brajmandal Jalabhishek Yatra’ will be conducted by August 31. Their logic, however, is that they are not conducting a separate procession but completing the one that started in Nuh but came under heavy attack. Since the month of ‘Shravan’ ends on August 31, the VHP has made that target.
However, there’s a twist.
“The local sentiments were hurt and hence a khap panchayat will be organised very soon. They want us to organise another yatra. Once they formally pass a resolution, VHP will lead it,” VHP’s National Spokesperson Vinod Bansal told News18. Bansal said the exact date of the yatra and the number of people expected will be determined by the khap. But the procession will take place “this month itself”, he confirmed.
The looming question that remains is the law and order situation that the VHP squarely puts in the state police and administration court. “It’s the job of the society to organise yatras and its the job of the administration to ensure law and order during that…It is another thing they failed to stop the jihadi elements last time and they fled after attacking the procession,” says Bansal when asked what will the VHP do if they fail to obtain police permission this time around.
WHAT’S THE YATRA ALL ABOUT?
The yatra is part of VHP-Bajrang Dal’s efforts to revive five temples from the time of the Pandava era of the Mahabharata from obscurity. Bansal alleges there are five such temples that used to be holy sites for Hindus but with demographic changes in the area, there has been an “attempt to control” those sites by certain local elements.
In Nuh district, Muslims constitute 79.2% of the population, according to the 2011 Census.
The yatra goes to all five temples, pours water on to the deities, and returns. In fact, when the procession was attacked on July 31, 3,000 Hindu devotees, out of the 25,000, who took part in the procession, took refuge in Malhar Mahadev Temple — one of the temples mentioned by Bansal, according to Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij’ own admission. Bansal insists, the area also holds importance to them as it is known to be the “karmabhoomi” of Lord Krishna. No wonder, the VHP wants to revive those temples.
THE BLOODBATH
Violence broke out at several places after stones were pelted during the religious procession and cars set on fire in Nuh on July 31. Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, died in the clashes that spread to neighbouring Gurugram over the last few days.
The initial investigation says the attack was done in a calibrated manner with the help of already arranged weapons. Even the cyber police station in Nuh was attacked.
Such was the scale of the violence that the Haryana government decided to immediately shift the battalion headquarters of the 2nd India Reserve Battalion (IRB) from the police complex Bhondsi to Nuh district to meet “imminent operational exigencies” of maintaining law and order and peace and security.
The communal flare-up was connected to social media which grabbed the central agencies’ attention. They narrowed down close to 100 social media handles that were highly active and involved in spreading propaganda related to the Nuh violence through their accounts. These handles were using the Haryana unrest to propagate their hateful agenda, the agencies found. The government agencies even saw evidence of cross-border interference in the Nuh communal violence.
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