Ganesh Chaturthi festival to keep cops on toes

HYDERABAD: The police bandobast calendar has just got busier. With Ganesh Chaturthi next week, it's not just the 43 new pandals added to Charminar division this year, but also speeches laced with communal undertones by local leaders at rallies that has led the police to call in around 1,700 additional forces from Kurnool, Nalgonda, Medak, Nizamabad, Nellore, Kadapa and Rajahmundry to be deployed in the South Zone to maintain law and order.

Around 1,269 pandals across the South Zone have been given permission with an additional 380 expected to be set up. Apart from the 43 new pandals in Charminar division, the total pandal count would rise by 10% this year. While Ganesh Chaturthi and Moharram have been on the bandobast calendar for long, the new entries include Durga Puja this year alongside the other recent entrants like Milad-un-Nabi, Ramnavami and Hanuman Jayanthi.

For Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations, observers attribute the rise in pandal numbers to festivals increasingly turning into show of dominance.

Shailender Kumar, a perfumer from Pathergatti, noted that the show of one-upmanship between adherents of various faiths has only grown stronger in the past couple of years. "Ganesh Chaturthi processions are old but any show of religious strength irrespective of faith is unhealthy." Vikram Reddy, another trader from Shah Ali Banda, echoed Shailender's views and said that it was always the common man who takes a beating during communal flare-ups. "Direct or indirect aggression between communities is an alarming trend. We do not need this. Hopefully one day, all this will go away

."

Lakshmi Narayana, associate professor of Sociology at University of Hyderabad said the pomp and show at these festivals are only attempts by communities to establish their dominance and can bring about disturbing reactionary values.

Former city police commissioner M V Krishna Rao says Ganesh Chaturthi was added to the bandobast calendar in 1980 soon after the festival was turned into a community affair during M Channa Reddy's regime. Rao says Jumatul Vida (the last Friday of Ramzan) was the only time when people would spill on to the streets in large numbers. "The problem lies in the fact that lumpen elements have assumed leadership of religious bodies irrespective of religion. The result of this is exhibitionism and jingoism. This scares the commoners. Further, there can be communal attacks. Religion must not affect public life

." With the next couple of months being lined up with festivals, police officials admit that they portend trouble. "Right after Ganesh Chaturthi, there is Dasara which has been added to the bandobast calendar only last year, followed by Bakrid which is too a crucial day to maintain peace in the city," said a police officer.

For Ganesh Chaturthi, three ASPs, 26 DSPs, 35 inspectors, 180 sub-inspectors, 205 assistant sub-inspectors, 1150 constables, 660 home guards from outside will be deployed. Police officials said the Old City has turned into an experimental ground for anti-social elements and predicted that things here would remain communally charged until 2014.

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