Arrest count in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal increase; sporadic incidents reported even as situation de-escalates
The Hindu
The count of persons arrested by the police in the two States rose to 333 in Uttar Pradesh and 200 in West Bengal
Several towns across West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, where protests over the comments of erstwhile BJP spokespersons on the Prophet had spiralled into violence on June 10, were limping back to normalcy on Monday.
The count of persons arrested by the police in the two States rose to 333 in Uttar Pradesh and 200 in Bengal; 13 FIRs have been registered by the U.P. police while their West Bengal counterparts have lodged 42 FIRs so far.
Sporadic incidents were, however, reported from parts of Bengal on Monday.
In North 24 Parganas, train services were briefly affected after protesters blocked the tracks near the Hashnabad railway station. The police in Bethuadahari, Nadia district, had to resort to baton charge to disperse a mob that had gathered near the railway station; a local train had been attacked by protesters there a day earlier.
An uneasy calm prevailed in Howrah, where protests had erupted on June 9. “No fresh violence has been reported in the past 48 hours,” said Jawed Shamim, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), West Bengal. He said there has been no loss of life or serious injury and the FIRs have been lodged for road blockade, assault, rioting, damage to public property and spreading communal hatred. “Nobody will be spared. We will identify each and everyone and take strict action,” Mr. Shamim told journalists at the State Secretariat.
His U.P. counterpart Prashant Kumar issued a district-wise break-up of arrests on Monday: 92 in Prayagraj, 81 in Saharanpur, 51 in Hathras, 41 in Ambedkar Nagar, 40 in Moradabad, 17 in Firozabad, six in Aligarh and five in Jalaun. Of the 13 cases, three have been registered in Prayagraj and Saharanpur, and one each in Firozabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Moradabad, Hathras, Aligarh, Lakhimpur Kheri and Jalaun, the ADG said.
A group of lawyers who had approached the Allahabad High Court against the demolition of the house of Javed Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of the violence that took place in Prayagraj, were told by the Chief Justice to file a regular petition. It is now likely to be filed on Tuesday or Wednesday.
“Writing, in general, is a very solitary process,” says Yauvanika Chopra, Associate Director at The New India Foundation (NIF), which, earlier this year, announced the 12th edition of its NIF Book Fellowships for research and scholarship about Indian history after Independence. While authors, in general, are built for it, it can still get very lonely, says Chopra, pointing out that the fellowship’s community support is as valuable as the monetary benefits it offers. “There is a solid community of NIF fellows, trustees, language experts, jury members, all of whom are incredibly competent,” she says. “They really help make authors feel supported from manuscript to publication, so you never feel like you’re struggling through isolation.”
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.