Delhi protests: Attacks on Shiela Dixit uncalled for

09 January, 2013

The snide attacks on Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dixit were uncalled for in the entire gang rape incident, says the Save Lucknow Forum. Put Dixit in charge of a panel to carry out police reforms in the national capital and she will do a great job, the forum suggests.

WHEN THE Chairman of the Save Lucknow Forum Y K Arora was approached to join a dharna in protest against the gang rape in Delhi, he was mildly surprised to see that it was being coordinated by a member of the Communist Party. Then it became evident the nationwide protests were not spontaneous; they were being coordinated with the help of schools, and cadres of Communist Party and ABVP.

The protests in Lucknow and the Signature Campaign led by Jyotsna Habibullah, the daughter-in-law of Wajahat Habibullah were model campaigns where both the administration and the protestors coordinated to ensure peaceful protests and there was no move to malign or slander anyone. But the entire drama in Delhi, the focus of the debate was on something unsustainable, an immediate and dramatic change in the law without following the due processes. The people on the street were not asking for justice, they were baying for the blood of the criminals, and they wanted to lynch those who were in power.

And the one who got shot in this crossfire was Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dixit, a woman, who would naturally sympathise with women. A woman, to whom the Delhi police do not report, was blamed for police inaction. It was like blaming the milkman for the poor quality of biscuits in the market. And in the turmoil the champion of the streets emerged in the form of Sushma Swaraj and her team.

Had I been in Sheilaji’s place I would have asked the Youth Congress cadres to infiltrate the protestors and order hot tea and samosas for all of them, says Y K Arora. “It would have been far cheaper than organizing a lathi charge or a water canon or even throwing tear gas shells on them, Arora says. Then Manish Tewari could have been called for taking a memorandum from the crowd or even arranging a street Parliament between the crowd and Sushma Swaraj and the Congress and taken its recommendations to the authorities. The venue could have been shifted to Ram Lila Ground rather than India Gate in view of traffic problems and everyone could have been invited there. Question is Did Sheila Dixit have the authority to do all this?

If we want police reforms in the national capital we need to recruit people from different parts of the country and place that NCR police under the Lt Governor and the Delhi state police under the CM. In the Delhi state police if we see closely most of the constables and junior officials are from communities known for having villages with Khaps, ‘honour killings’, dowry deaths and female infanticide. To clean up the police of the national capital for the NCR police we need to recruit from the North East, from the South and from all parts of India, says Anuradha Chak.

After all, we need a gender sensitized police and a man coming from a background where there is no respect for women cannot be gender sensitized. To give Dixit a chance to prove herself we should put her in charge of a committee that has a time bound plan to recommend these police reforms. I am sure she will live up to the mark.