Saffron is suddenly a dominant colour in Hyderabad. Over the past week, much of the city has been adorned with flags of the colour in the run up to Hanuman Jayanthi festivities as the BJP and its affiliates went the extra distance to make the festival a grand success.
This new found fervour in celebrating festivals like Hanuman Jayanthi and Eid-ul-Nabi is at the root of the violence that has ripped Hyderabad, particularly the Old City, over the last three days. Some said the latest cycle of violence started as a minor incident on Saturday night over the replacement of green flags hung for Eid-ul-Nabi in the Muslim dominated Old City with saffron flags. The violence, however, suddenly got a life of its own on Monday afternoon with rival groups of people going around the Old City allegedly burning down cow shelters and raining stones on temples and masjids.
“There is a difference in the pattern of injuries seen in the violence on the first day and when it resurfaced. On Saturday, most of the injuries were those inflicted with wooden sticks. The cases that came in on Monday involved stabbings and knife injuries. A different dynamic seemed to be at work,” said a casualty doctor at the Osmania Medical College where many of the injured were taken. Hyderabad Police Commissioner A K Khan also called the violence an “organized attempt”, but refused to elaborate.
The political chatter in Hyderabad says the violence is a two-edged sword wielded by Rayalseema politicians and local allies to serve as a diversionary tactic from the Telangana issue and at the same time unseat Andhra Pradesh Congress Chief Minister K Rosaiah. “It is a conspiracy similar to the one against Chenna Reddy’s government in 1990,” said Madhu Yakshi Goud, Congress MP from Telangana, referring to the incident where the late Y S Rajashekhara Reddy was among the Congress leaders accused by the opposition of instigating the violence.
“The violence is pre-planned. Politicians are creating a divide on religious lines to suppress the Telangana movement. The factionalist politicians from Rayalseema have joined hands across party lines. The local MIM is supporting this for its vote bank politics,” claimed Mohammed Latif, general secretary of the Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee.
G Kishan Reddy, Andhra Pradesh’s new state BJP president, however, rubbished this. “I agree the Hanuman Jayanthi celebrations were unprecedented, but it happened with the enthusiasm of the people themselves. Eid-ul-Nabi was also celebrated in an unprecedented manner. Who funded the festivities must be found out,” he said.
According to Ahmed Pasha Quadri, the MIM legislator for the Charminar region, the police reaction to the first incidents were insufficient and not enough reinforcements were sent, resulting in fresh violence.
The MIM and the Congress are represented in seven each of the 15 Assembly constituencies that make up Hyderabad City. “I have also heard that the violence in the Old City is because people are unhappy over the peace in the region through the Telangana agitation,” said Kishan Reddy, also the only BJP MLA from the city.
“A thorough probe should be ordered to find out if your own party people are involved or there are other unidentified elements behind the riots,” Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu told Chief Minister Rosaiah in the Assembly on Tuesday.
-Agencies