Within a month of assuming office again (for the seventh consecutive term), the BJP got down to working on its pre-election promise of setting up anti-radicalisation cells in “areas prone” to the same. In Gujarat, this would be in line with the party’s aggressive Hindutva push. The manifesto had also promised to enact the “Gujarat Recovery of Damages of Public and Private Properties Act” to recover the cost of damage caused to public and private properties by anti-social elements during riots and protests. Similar laws enacted in other BJP-ruled states have come under fierce criticism for their targeting of protesters, particularly Muslims.
Highly placed sources briefed that the cells would come up in police stations in pockets vulnerable to communal tensions. Police personnel will be sensitised to identify the threat in border areas and also in wards known to be sharply polarised.
MoS Harsh Sanghvi chaired the meeting over the past few days to work out modalities of the project. He informed that detailed modules of the plan to train and implement ways to detect and deal with radicalisation are afoot. “This will not be a confrontational exercise. Rather it will be a participative one, calling on eminent members of communities to spread the message of unity in diversity,” added senior officials who are a part of the programme.
While the nitty-gritties of the plan have to be detailed, insiders added that the cell will be monitored from Police Bhavan in Gandhinagar. Once operationalised, a senior official will be made in-charge of its smooth running.
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