The kind of violence witnessed in different parts of the country on the occasion of Ram Navami is matter of worry.
In a span of two days, incidents like stone pelting, fighting, arson took place between people of two communities in different cities of six states of the country.
Incident took place in Malad (Mumbai), Jalgaon and Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) in Maharashtra, Howrah and Dalkhola in West Bengal, Sasaram and Nalanda in Bihar, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Sonipat in Haryana, Vadodara in Gujarat and Hassan in Karnataka.
Different explanations are also coming from the administration, local organizations and political parties.
But overall, the one fact that all these are underlining is that they cannot be taken as mere local incidents, nor can they be considered as the result of any coincidence.
Keep in mind, it is not a new thing to get tension in some parts of the country or reports of sporadic violence on the occasion of festivals.
But such incidents have always been the exception. Generally all our festivals have been celebrated peacefully and together.
It is worth noting that for some time there has been a tremendous change in this situation. Last year Ram Navami was on 10 April. Even then, incidents of violence, stone pelting were reported in six states- Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Goa.
Not only this, just a few days later, on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti, reports of violence were coming from ten states for several days.
Obviously, communal violence and tension on festivals is becoming the new normal in our country.
At one level, of course, it is also a problem of law and order. The failure of police and administration is an important aspect of this. But the matter is not limited to that.
The more important aspect of the problem is that there is a steady decline in the harmony of our society, in the spirit of living together with love.
This thing does not always appear in the form of violence, it is often seen as a tendency that works to increase the distance between different parts of the society even without disturbing the peace.
For example, announcements of not allowing youth from other communities to attend Navratri celebrations can be taken.
Hate speech is another example of this. Such tendencies may not lead to any major untoward incident immediately, but give rise to ill will on both sides, which makes it easy to carry out violent incidents on other occasions.
Keeping the law and order agencies more vigilant, there is also a need to curb the tendencies that are increasing hatred in the society.
