PMO keeping a close watch on Manohar Lal Khattar after Dera violence.

NewDelhi: Haryana’s Manohar Lal government, which faced severe criticism for its inability to handle violent protests in the state last weekend, is under close watch by the Prime Minister’s Office, senior officials familiar with the matter said.

Manohar Lal’s continuance as chief minister is thanks largely to the Centre’s call that a change at the top now can create further destabilisation in the administration. But, these officials said, Manohar Lal’s performance is being monitored.

Officials quoted above said Manohar Lal didn’t come across as “convincing” during his interaction with PMO on the issue of handling the crisis created by violent crowds protesting the conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

“What we observed last week was a complete breakdown of police and bureaucracy which the Centre won’t take lightly. We are still looking at what went wrong in detail, but that it has happened shows the state government needs to correct its approach,” a senior official said.

“Intelligence inputs from various agencies were with the state police but, somehow, it appeared they weren’t taking them seriously,” the official said.

Manohar Lal’s administration has failed thrice to contain big protests, people quoted above said. The other two occasions were 2014 protests by followers of another godman Rampal, in which six people were killed, and the 2015 Jat agitation that saw 30 deaths.

Officials said the state administration had ample warning and intelligence that violence could break out. Still, Section 144 was not properly enforced. The Haryana CM told his interlocutors at the Centre that the failure to enforce Section 144 is largely the police’s fault.

But, officials said, the CM’s office had the ultimate responsibility.

The Centre is now reviewing the Haryana administration’s approach and it has been noted that there was no preventive deployment of armed police on the streets, and neither was there strategic deployment to prevent the godman’s followers from gathering in large numbers.

“Confusing signals were sent to the bureaucracy, the situation was misread despite warnings and the state’s brass, both administrative and political, took its own time to react once violence erupted,” said another senior official.

“Were police officers given ‘shoot at sight’ orders? How did they mess it up so bad? Did they abandon their basic duties? All this we have looked into,” added the official quoted above.

The Centre had warned Manohar Lal after the “mishandling” of Jat protests, officials said. On Sunday, PM Narendra Modi, in his radio address Mann Ki Baat, had said his government will not tolerate violence in the name of faith.