Following a simple guarantee that none of the participants would be carrying weapons, the police, without conducting any due diligence, approved the parade.
Source: BBC
The entry of armed parade participants into a neighbourhood where the majority of the residents are Muslims highlights severe oversights on the part of the authorities. It is evident that the standard operating procedure (SOP) for such circumstances was approved, which appears to have made it simpler for the awaiting crowd to engage in a full-scale assault.
The government should have been made aware of the prospect of a violent altercation by the incendiary films making the rounds on social media on the yatra’s night, in which members of both communities make aggressive statements.
Trouble was imminent because the suspected lynching suspect and cow vigilante for the Bajrang Dal, Monu Manesar, encouraged crowds to swarm Mewat temples. Conflicts that occurred during Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti festivities in Bihar and West Bengal in March and April of this year, as well as in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh in April 2022, were not followed by any lessons.
Source: Study IQ IAS
Earlier this year, a study titled Routes of Wrath u2014 Weaponizing Religious Processions was published by the Citizens and Lawyers Initiative, a civil society organisation. It provided a case-by-case examination of how communal riots began and expanded as well as how religious processions had developed into a venue for inciting hate and violence.
The authorities must be cautious when approving authorization for processions in light of such complaints; as a result, it is important to make sure that the SOP is properly followed. To stop the situation from getting out of control, troublemakers from both communities should be imprisoned well in advance.
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