Kolkata’s iconic Shahid Minar. Using buckets of water from river Ganga and soap, members of the CPI-M and Congress student arms 'purify" the Shahid Minar Maidan where Union Home Minister and former BJP national president Amit Shah held a rally on Sunday.
Accusing the BJP of having “maligned” the historic ground with its ‘supporters’ raising the incendiary “Goli Maro” slogan while marching to the rally venue, the CPI-M affiliated Students Federation of India cadres and Congress loyalist Chhatra Parishad activists jointly carried out the “purification drive”.
“We used soap and water. Our friends from the Chhatra Parishad used Ganga water. Ours is a token protest against the communal tone and the raising of such inflammatory slogan,” said an SFI leader.
Besides the ground, they also washed the base of the landmark Shahid Minar (Martyr’s column) after which the ground gets its name.
A group of people, some of them wearing kurta, and carrying BJP flags, raised the provocative “Goli Maro…” while going in a procession towards the rally venue in central Kolkata.
The inflammatory slogan was first chanted at a public rally addressed by Union Minister and BJP leader Anurag Thakur on January 27 in Delhi’s Rithala area. Thakur had allegedly egged on his audience to respond to the slogan.
Thakur was then barred from campaigning by the Election Commission for 72 hours in the run-up to the February 8 Delhi Assembly polls.
Four persons have been arrested so far in connection with the incendiary “goli maaro” slogan raised by a group of people going to Union Home Minister and former BJP national president Amit Shah’s rally two days back, police said on Tuesday.
While three people were arrested from the city’s New Market police station area on Monday morning, later another person was rounded up from Ghola in 24 Parganas (North) district in the night.
A group of people, some of them wearing kurta, and carrying BJP flags, raised the provocative slogan calling for shooting the traitors while going in a procession towards the rally venue in central Kolkata.
Cases under sections 153 A (Promoting enmity between different groups),34 (common intent), 505 (public mischief) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code have been slapped against the accused.
The three arrested from the city are Surendra Kumar Tiwary, Pankaj Prashad and Dhruba Basu. A BJP leader Sujit Barua was nabbed during a joint operation by personnel of New Market and Ghola police stations.
Kolkata Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma in a statement said the arrests were made following a complaint lodged at the New Market police station that “some persons allegedly shouted provocative slogans having potential to disturb public tranquility from a procession while going to attend a political rally”.
“The video footage of the said procession was analysed and the persons shouting the provocative slogans identified,” following which raids were held and the arrests made.
“Further raids to arrest the remaining accused persons is on,” Sharma said in a statement.
Issuing a strong warning, the police commissioner said officers-in-charge of all police stations have been instructed to initiate strong legal action against anybody trying to incite people.
“In the recent a number of rallies, meetings processions were held in the city, with different police parties, groups and organisations each representing their viewpoint.
“The situation in the city has remained completely peaceful. OCs of police stations have been directed to initiate Strong legal action against any person who tries to provoke or instigate in any way which may lead to a breach in peace,” the statement said.
Referring to the slogan issue at a political programme on Monday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said: “The language is inflammatory, illegal and demonic. Legal action will be taken against them. Nobody will be spared”.
Banejee said it was for the people to decide “who is a gaddar (traitor) and who is not”.
However, state governor Jagdeep Dhankhar refused to attach any importance to the slogan.
“If suppose there are 1,000 people and one person says somethinga that’s 100 per cent for youa for me that’s .01 per cent. It’s a country of great positivitya its a very large country,” Dhankhar told mediapersons here.
He went on to appeal to the media to be “proportionate and get away from sensation.
“It’s time to be very, very responsible in public life,” he said.
The slogan was first chanted at a public rally addressed by Union Minister and BJP leader Anurag Thakur on January 27 in Delhi’s Rithala area. Thakur had allegedly egged on his audience to respond to the slogan.
Thakur was then barred from campaigning by the Election Commission for 72 hours in the run-up to the February 8 Delhi Assembly polls
A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called the Delhi violence a ‘planned genocide’ and blamed the BJP for the disturbances, the saffron party hit back on Tuesday with union minister Babul Suriyo asking the Trinamool Congress supremo to stop making ‘provocative comments’.
Supriyo alleged that Banerjee did not even know the meaning of ‘genocide’ and should think twice before shooting off her mouth.
“The chief minister doesn’t even know the meaning of genocide. So she should think twice before shooting off her mouth. At a time when normalcy was returning to Delhi, she should stop making these kind of provocative comments,” said the minister of state for environment and forests.
Supriyo said if Banerjee at all had such suggestions, she could call on union home minister Amit Shah.
Participating in a political programme on Monday, Banerjee had said: “The way people have been killed in Delhi over the past few days, I think it’s a planned genocide and later it has been portrayed as communal riots.”
Blaming the BJP for the violence, she said instead of seeking forgiveness, it was trying to “capture new territories’.
Banerjee’s comments came a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah, addressing a rally at the Shahid Minar maidan here, accused Mamata of ‘instigating’ riots and torching of trains and railway stations during the violent anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protest last December. (IANS)