State government blamed for communal clashes in Tamil Nadu

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

Is Tamil Nadu becoming a hotbed of communal clashes? And did the police ignore early signals that led to the death of seven people in Coimbatore district, which is limping back to normalcy after a week of violence not to mention other incidents across the state in recent times?

The Coimbatore incidents followed the killing of Palani Baba, a Muslim fundamentalist leader, heading the Islamic Jihad Organisation, not exactly known for his discretion or decorum in public fora. He was killed in front of a friend's house in Pollachi, 45 km from Coimbatore, on January 28. The week that followed was witnesses to a spate of violence in the region, leading to seven deaths, apart from injuries to scores of others.

Even without the killing of Palani Baba, who had been held under the Goondas Act earlier, communal incidents have been showing up their ugly face in the state for some time now. If an RSS worker was killed near the venue of a Muslim fundamentalist public meeting near Dingigul recently -- he had challenged the speaker for making anti-rational statements -- another was killed in the Madras suburb of Tambaram last week.

RSS activists are alleged to have been involved in the killing of a DMK member and his brother in Kanyakumari district, a couple of months back.

The attacks on the RSS date back to the days following the Babri Masjid demolition, when the AIADMK was in power in the state. A bomb blast destroyed the state RSS headquarters in Madras. A prominent leader of the Hindu Munnai, a state-level Hindutva organisation working in consort with the RSS, Rajagopalan was killed in front of his Madurai home. Independent of these, a bomb went off at the home of film-maker Mani Ratnam after the release of his controversial film Bombay. Another blast was reported at the famed Meenakshi temple at Madurai, but it did not cause any destruction.

The RSS has a list of 23 victims from its ranks, and blame the state police for inaction. Muslim fundamentalists name Hindu radical leaders like Hindu Munnai founder Ramagopalan for making provocative speeches. They too allege that the state police has done precious little to keep the situation in check.

Says an informed source: "Both the intelligence and law and order wings of the police either seem to be taking things easy, or have no clue about what's in store. These groups from either side are identifiable, and their meetings and actions follow a pattern. Given their inherent weaknesses, as also individual strengths, it would have been enough for the state police to tick off unwanted elements to behave, or else..."

According to his information, the state police headquarters, for instance, had ignored the need for reinforcements in Coimbatore district immediately after the Palani Baba killing.

The killings have taken a political turn with RSS chief Professor Rajendra Singh criticising Chief Minister M Karunanidhi for making 'partisan' statements about the recent killings.

Referring to Karunanidhi's statement on Monday that more Muslims had been killed in the Coimbatore clashes than Hindus, Professor Singh told newsmen "This is not expected of a chief minister." He also objected to Karunanidhi's declaration that he has always been a 'friend of the minorities', particularly Muslims, 'who have always voted for the DMK'.

Though made in a purely political context, Karunanidhi's statement has made him suspect in the eyes of Hindutva elements, who can now be expected to interpret every action of the state government on the communal front, in this light.

Te state government had taken a firm stand on not allowing the annual Vinayaka Chaturthi procession to pass through communally-sensitive areas, a move upheld by the courts and applauded by the public. "A new meaning, on the lines suggested by the Hindutva forces, could now come to be attributed to the state government's action then," says the source quoted earlier.

In this context, even a known RSS-baiter like Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy has shared the views of the organisation. "Karunanidhi's statements are in the nature of supporting Muslim fundamentalists in the state," he said adding, "The chief minister is only provoking a communal atmosphere in the state."

For his part, Dr Swamy has demanded the arrest of the RSS chief, who is currently touring the state, and a ban on RSS shakhas, in the state. Hre estimates that the number of shakhas will go up to 2,000 from the current 1,150.

If Dr Swamy shared the RSS view that the Muslim fundamentalists in the state have been getting funds from the Pakistani ISI, he also went on to add that the Hindu fundamentalists were being funded by non-resident Indians abroad.

Says the source: "The governments, both at the Centre and in the state, should wake up to such charges, and investigate them thoroughly. There may be some truth in it, as there had been earlier reports of the ISI training its gun at the south, after its failures in Punjab and Kashmir. And the Tamil Nadu incidents should not be viewed in isolation."

What has not gone unnoticed is the fact that the two men arrested for Palani Baba's murder belong to neighbouring Kerala. Says the source: "If they are the ones involved, it hints at a dangerous trend."

According to him, even within Kerala during the earlier innings of Left rule, the RSS had fine-tuned a system of 'importing' cadres from other regions of the state to commit violent acts elsewhere. The local police would have no clue to the identity of the persons involved. "It's an improvised system to the kind of hired goondas witnessed in Tamil Nadu under AIADMK rule," he said.