As people of the country has resorted to vandalism over Citizenship Amendment law, the UP government presents a perfect example of how to control the mob. A few days ago, UP Police registered FIR against 21 students and 500 unnamed persons, after the protest in the campus.
The students were taking the protest to city circles- the designated spot for the public meeting. And when the police on duty tried to stop them, the students “pushed them, continued raising slogans against the administration and reached the AMU circle.” According to UP Police, the students “violated Section 144 of IPC and interrupted government officers on duty.”
The Yogi government has taken the strongest measures to deal with the ongoing protest (read vandalism) against the amendment in Citizenship Law. There has not been a single incident in the state, where things went out of control in protest against CAB, despite a lot of inflammatory rhetoric used by anti-CAB politicians.
One policeman in Aligarh Muslim University placated protesting crowds urging to protest ‘democratically’ and if they do so he would stand with them for as long as they protested as long as it was peaceful.
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On the other hand, West Bengal has been scalded by escalating violence against the Citizenship Amendment Act (hereafter CAA), which spread to more areas on Saturday as mobs torched buses, trains and railway stations, set afire government property and blocked roads and railway tracks, disrupting train and vehicular movements. The maximum violence was reported from Murshidabad district and Howrah.
A large number of mail, express and passenger trains were cancelled by the South Eastern Railway and Eastern Railway — two important zones of the Indian Railways — which run the services to most parts of the eastern state. At many of the stations, panicky railway employees fled from their posts fearing for their lives.
Similarly, law and order situation deteriorated in the state of West Bengal in last few days. The Assam government had not anticipated protest of such large scale against CAA, and the preparations were minimal. But this lacklustre attitude resulted in massive damage to public property, as the protestors burnt the government buses, offices, and railway lines. Some people were even killed in police firings, as the law enforcement agencies tried to control the situation. The protestors burnt 5 empty trains.
As of now, the situation is under control, at the cost of 6 lives and 85 people under jail. “Incidents of stone-pelting, setting vehicles on fire and attacking life and property have been videographed. We will identify the persons involved and take action against them,” said Assam Director General of Police (DGP) Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta.
Even in Delhi, where citizen to law enforcement professionals’ ratio is among the highest, the protest in Jamia Nagar turned violent. The protestors, majority of whom were students of Jamia Milia Islamia (A central university), resorted to vandalism- attacked the journalists, destroyed public property-because the police preparations for the event were minimal.
The Yogi government and the UP Police must be applauded for the controlling the law and order situation, that too in a state which used to be infamous for lawlessness. The Assam government West Bengal government and Delhi Police must learn from the swift response of the UP Police. In the last two and a half years, the law and order situation in UP has improved substantially under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath.