Industry-Statistical Fiddles

long run, communal clashes have their uses for the ruling parties. The immediate benefit of the Moradabad killings has been the promulgation of the preventive detention ordinance in UP, No doubt this will in course of time become a 'law'; and it can only be a matter of time before PD will return all over the country. Cities in the heartland are now no strangers to being declared 'disturbed areas' and all the unpleasant implications of such a declaration. Searches, flag marches, orders to the police to shoot at sight, even deployment of 'elite' forces like the Special Commando Squad of the BSF trained to deal with "terrorists, hijackers and their ilk" in the heart of the Capital, are now routine matters. Viewed historically, what is happening is the inexorable militarisation of the police forces of the country and, along with it, the increasing involvement of the armed forces themselves in tasks which are normally the responsibility of the civil police.