"The riot in Sadar Bazar followed a rally on 14 November 1990. This riot continued for 3 days.
The Indian People's Front (IPF) constituted a team consisting of Shiv Mangal Sidhantkar, Rajiv Dimri, Purshottam Sharma, Prem Singh and Prof. Dalip S. Swamy to investigate the nature and causes of this riot, and to find out the forces that were active and the role of the administration.
The real target of attack was the Slaughterhouse. It has been operating in the area for the last 100 years. It covers an area of 38,000 square yards. It is owned and managed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) (with annual revenue of Rs. 45 lakhs. MCD (has) 205 people, including doctors, managers and safari karamcharis on its pay roll. About 1,100 Hindu workers are employed for Jhataka and about 7,000 Muslim workers are engaged for Halal by traders and meat agencies.
The Slaughter House is a losing proposition for the Corporation, and it has also become a health hazard to the residents. But it is a goldmine for those who control the Corporation, the traders and the minions of the administrations. The Slaughterhouse land is currently valued at about Rs. 100 crores. By relocating it the top decision-makers will be able to exercise political power to the benefit of the potential occupant at this prime location, and to the benefit of the landowners whose land will be acquired and the contractors who will obviously chip in. Traders and meat agencies. are already making good money. Some of these elements have obviously developed vested interests in not shifting the Slaughterhouse This Slaughterhouse is, therefore, a goldmine for the existing traders as well as a potential source of great political power to those controlling the Corporation.
The circumstantial evidence clearly suggests that the attacks on the RSS Centre in Dhobi Katra and the Slaughterhouse was preplanned. It was the handiwork of a group that did not participate in the rally, even though some of the rallyists joined the attacking mob. The miscreants simultaneously attacked the Slaughterhouse, disturbed the rally and attacked the RSS Centre. The rally was needed to camouflage all this. The rally was organised to create a mob-umbrella, stone-throwing was a tactic to create panic while the killing, looting and arson were orchestrated with an implicit understanding that the culprits will be protected...
The role of administration was sinister. The rally was not permitted by the Government... The police force deployed along with this procession of 10,000 strong was less than 50. And, when the riot broke out, these policemen did not intervene...
Concluding Remarks
It is clear that the riot on 14 November, 1990 in Delhi Sadar was not a pure communal violence, nor was it a handiwork of the rally... even though both had played important roles in the... episode. It was a pre-mediated and orchestrated violence to terrorise the traders... and the political activists in the locality. The motivation was to smash the prevailing economic interests. There is enough evidence to support the view that the targets of attack were neither Hindus nor Muslims, though both suffered consequences in terms of lives and property. The real target was the Slaughter House and the traders therein. The motive was to prepare sufficient ground for shifting its location.
…The riot was designed to disrupt the emerging Dalit-Muslim unity as well as to administer a blow to the RSS ranks in the locality… The available evidence clearly points towards the long hand of Congress (I). To smash the RSS centre and also to break the resistance to shifting the Slaughter House, serve the interest of Cong (I) in the locality…
(Source: University Today, 1-15 January, 1991)
— Chandra Shekhar”