The Hindu : New Delhi News : Presence of camera crews restrains police, agitators

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 03, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Presence of camera crews restrains police, agitators

Police preparedness during anti-quota agitation did not assume menacing proportions, observes PRASHANT PANDEY

The Delhi police have by and large adopted a restrained approach to the anti-reservation agitation going on in the Capital for the past several days. Amid many possible reasons for such an attitude being adopted by the police, the one worth examining is whether the constant presence of camera crews prevented them from possibly going overboard.

In the early stages of the protests, the police did use force when the agitators gathered at India Gate and wanted to march to the high security area. However, they used only water cannons and lobbed tear gas shells. Some of the news channels did report that the police had resorted to cane charge, but the police quickly and rightly denied it.

But in Mumbai, the police used lathi-charge on protesters. These pictures were beamed throughout the day as a result of which the human rights agencies swung into action and demanded an explanation from the police.

The story after that was more or less of the police remaining, as it were, out of the picture. It was not that they were not present but the manner of their deployment indicated that they did not want to interfere unless absolutely necessary. Be it the march the agitators took out from Maulana Azad Medical College to Jantar Mantar or their presence within the premises of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, they looked prepared. But their preparedness did not assume menacing proportions.

Perhaps the only "brush" the agitators had with the police within AIIMS was when they thought that the police were pressurising tent suppliers to remove the tents from the lawns. However, with media persons remaining active even around midnight, the police quickly distanced themselves from the incident.

The following afternoon again the police seemed to be adopting some threatening postures by increasing their presence at AIIMS. The riot control vehicle was brought in and all the main gates were closed with a posse of policemen standing guard. But as soon as the media began reporting about the developments, indicating that the police might use force any time to break the agitation, the gates were opened again and the policemen dispersed.

Barring these few instances, however, there was not much that could even come close to a violent face-off between the policemen and the agitators.

Apart from the "presence of media" theory, the other reason being forwarded for the largely peaceful agitation is that the protesters were from educated class and there was little likelihood of them adopting violent methods to make their voices heard. This also brought a sense of assurance to the police who could afford deployment of adequate number of men and not make a place of agitation look like a war zone.

This was clearly visible during the rally the agitators held at Ramlila Grounds on May 27. While the gathering of students, senior citizens and intellectuals was fairly large, the number of policemen deployed did not seem more than what was adequate.

At the end of the rally, the self-immolation attempt by a young man could have led to ugly incidents. But not only were the policemen present there quick to prevent the man from injuring himself further, they were also quick to provide information about his identity, which established that he was not one of the agitators. On the other hand, those inside Ramlila Grounds were not informed about the incident as a result of which a possible panic situation was avoided.

When the agitation against reservations began this time round, there was an apprehension that horrific memories of anti-reservation protests of early 1990s would come back to haunt the Capital.

But with the constant presence of electronic media, a restrained police and agitators protesting peacefully, things were much more in control.

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