The Gurjjar agitation has been called off, but a post mortem of the last six days that all but crippled Rajasthan and found its way to the Capital’s doors is in order. The maelstrom highlighted two significant dimensions — the politics of reservations and the administration of law and order. The first got its fair share of comment; the second, much less. Yet the abject abdication of the state to the rule of the mob from day one was both revealing and disturbing in its import.

The easy run that the wielders of swords and lathis — claiming to represent the Gurjjars and Meenas as the case may be — had of the highways; the facile manner in which they stopped trains, terrorised commuters and set fire to public buses, spoke of a high degree of administrative impotence. In fact it spoke of a craven submission of the authority of the state to goons and criminals. The first job of the state is to maintain law and order. Both the Rajasthan and Central governments failed this test abysmally. If the local police had acted in a firm manner at the first signs of trouble, we may have been spared the violent tableau that followed, one which took a high toll in human life and property. In fact, for the first few days the police just stood by, even as the agitators got emboldened with every passing minute. This lack of timely action speaks of a force that has lost its ability to gauge a crisis and take firm action. This could be the outcome of poor training and political pressure. But it is also the consequence of shrill and often uninformed accusations of police excesses that make it to the public sphere every now and then — the response to the lathi-charge on the Hero Honda workers two years ago being a case in point. Demoralisation in the ranks has dangerous consequences: it could result in unrest spiralling out of control as it did in Rajasthan with those who harness criminal violence for political ends allowed free rein.

... contd.