With the outbreak of communal riots last week in Hyderabad, yet another dark chapter has been added to the history of the old city around Charminar ... It was  eight years ago that the city saw its last major riot, largely believed to be triggered off by a dissident section within the State Congress to force the ouster of then chief minister M. Chenna Reddy. Over 200 people had lost their lives in that riots.

Compared-to the-dismal record of the Congress, the NTR regime had a much better showing and was to a large extent free from communal riots in Hyderabad. To Rama Rao's credit, he never condoned or encouraged any attempt to trigger communal tension on any occasion. Despite his religious Hindu image, Rama Rao was not seen as a communal man ... Why did the Chandrababu Naidu Government fail this time?

The large scale violence, undoubtedly, was the result  of sheer failure on the part of the administration and the police force in anticipating and checking the armed clashes. At the same time, linking this violence only to an obnoxious and provocative pamphlet will be to over simplify the matter. The mysterious pamphlet, making insulting remarks against the religious faith of the minority community, was in circulation for almost four days. Several representations were made to various people to take action ... Even the intelligence gathering machinery had warned the police of imminent trouble on Friday ...

When trouble broke out as a section of people coming out of the mosque started rioting, there was not sufficient force to quell the mob. More than 40 people were injured in the violence with in one hour. The backlash came the net morning, highlighting again the lax attitude of the city police. Armed bands were given a free hand for almost three hours in the highly sensitive areas of old city where a cluster of houses of Muslim community were left at the mercy of the mobs. By the end of the day, many more lives had been lost, houses and shops plundered even as curfew was belatedly imposed on a large part of the city.

Though the situation now seems to be limping back to normal ... the image of the TDP government has taken a severe beating. In particular, the minority community, already hurt with Naidu's earlier decision to support the BJP Government at the Centre, is further alienated from the TDP.

While during the communal trouble in the past, the TDP used to equally target the BJP and the MIM as two sides of the same coin ... this time significantly it is only the MIM which has drawn the ire of the chief minister. While the two legislators of MIM along with many other leaders and workers of the party were arrested and charged with inciting violence, the BJP leaders faced no problem in freely moving around in the riot-affected areas ...

The TDP leader is ... concerned over the possible political fall out of the incident. A riot in the State capital, hardly a year before the Assembly elections is not happy news for any ruling party. Naidu is also apprehensive that these happenings can adversely affect his dream of developing Hyderabad in to an "IT hub", "model city of India" and "knowledge society". Violence will put paid to his efforts to attract the multinationals to Hyderabad.

These apprehensions have forced Naidu to seriously take up the damage-control exercise ..

There as been a considerable change in the ground situation in the old city since the last major riot in 1990. The Ramanna Chary committee, which was set up By the then State Government after the 1990 riots had submitted ... a long list of recommendations. However, most of them ... remained on paper. For instance, the committee had suggested that the living conditions of the old city denizen should be improved and the area be decongested. Though some improvement has come about in the old city but by and large its still lags far behind in comparison to the other parts of the city.

... It remains to be seen how far would (Naidu) succeed in making a reality of his promise to make the old city free from the riots and turn it into a model city.                                                                                                                                          (Source: The Pioneer, 9 June, 1998)

 Representation of Muslims in Police Force