RSS' grip on administration in Madhya Pradesh

The police officer who tried to stop the communal violence from escalating in riot-hit Talen town in Rajgarh, by taking on an RSS office-bearer had to pay the price with his suspension.

Naturally, no police officer was willing to uphold law and take action in the recent incident of elopment of Umar and Priyanka when former's brother was illegally detained for five days. The bureaucracy succumbed to the diktats of Saffron organisations.

Narsinghgarh SDOP (Sub-divisional Officer of Police) Suryakanat Sharma was suspended even before the inquiry of DIG was completed. One Ajab Singh Yadav was killed and local Hindu outfits wanted to avenge the killing. RSS leader Pramod Pawar had openly boasted that he could engineer a riot any day, reports Hindustan Times' correspondent Ashutosh Shukla, in a report published on April 14.

It was Friday, Muslims were assembling for prayer when Hanuman Jayanti procession was taken out in front of the mosque without permission. SDOP Sharma objected and there was an altercation.

The local RSS, Bajrang Dal, VHP and BJP leaders dared police to arrest a single person. The riot led to several deaths and injuries to scores of persons apart from large-scale arson. However, it was later when the police reached Pawar's house to arrest him that he jumped off the roof to evade arrest. In process he received injuries.

Pawar later claimed that he was beaten by police. Without waiting for report of the inquiry, the BJP government axed the officer. The local MLA Mohan Sharma is a former Bajrang Dal leader and a known criminal Nitesh Agarwal was leading the procession, reports the newspaper. The three towns, Narsinghgarh, Biaora and Talen in Rajgarh district had recently witnessed communal clashes.