Calcutta HC rejects BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari’s plea to defer CM rally on temple day
Telegraph | 20 January 2024
The high court on Thursday rejected the BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari's prayers for orders to defer chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s proposed interfaith unity march and meeting scheduled for Monday, the day of the Ayodhya Ram temple inauguration, or allow central forces be deployed in Bengal on that day.
The Calcutta High Court ruling came as a loss of face for Adhikari and the BJP as Trinamul welcomed the decision.
The high court division bench comprising Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya held that every political party has a fundamental right to hold a rally on the date of their choice and courts cannot interfere in it.
“Courts can only see that law and order is not disturbed,” said the Chief Justice.
The division bench turned down the plea for central forces as well, saying: “The police will maintain law and order.”
Adhikari, the BJP MLA and leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, moved Calcutta High Court on Wednesday, contending the march led by Mamata would create law and order problems.
“In our state also, the people have planned many programmes on that day to celebrate the inaugural programme. The programme called by the ruling party might create chaos.... So the court should ask Trinamul to postpone its programme,” Nandigram MLA Adhikari’s petition stated, and recalled last year's clashes during Ram Navami. “Keeping the incidents in mind, the court should call in central forces for maintaining peace in the state,” his plea had added.
The Ram temple on Monday will be inaugurated in Ayodhya's controversial site of the 16th century Babri Masjid demolished by the saffron ecosystem on December 6, 1992.
Trinamul said Adhikari and his party were “anti-unity, anti-amity”, and rejoiced at the court’s decision.
“Those who do not want integration, amity, unity… the divisive BJP and their leader of Opposition, and others, had moved court to stop our march. The court has landed a tight slap across their face. A resounding slap,” said Trinamul state general secretary Kunal Ghosh.
“The march will take place, there is no need for central forces. The state government, the state administration, and the state police are enough,” he added. “The court basically told the BJP that under no circumstances would their unjust, anti-people demand be tolerated.”
Mamata had on Tuesday said she would visit the Kalighat temple, offer puja at the shrine and then lead an interfaith harmony rally from the Hazra crossing to Park Circus Maidan with representatives from various communities on January 22, the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi will helm the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple. She said Trinamul’s district units would organise similar harmony rallies in all 341 blocks of Bengal.
Although the announcement came exactly a week after her first unambiguous public response in recent memory to the January 22 event, underscoring the universality of festivals, criticising division between communities, and asserting that the temple inauguration was being done “for a gimmick show” ahead of the general election,
Mamata on Tuesday had emphasised it was neither a counter-event nor a gesture of protest, and was being done given Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s birth anniversary fell on January 23.
On Thursday, the high court division bench also stated that Trinamul leaders would not be permitted to say anything that might hurt the sentiments of any religion or community.
“The rally will be held in the proposed route between 11am and 5pm and enough security measures will have to be taken to avoid any untoward incident,” the bench added.
To this, advocate-general Kishore Datta, appearing for the state, said: “The chief minister has organised the proposed rally only for maintaining communal harmony of the state on that day.”
Mamata has evidently been trying to steer clear of direct criticism of the temple event while trying to send out a message to the minorities, a crucial third of the Bengal electorate, whose support plays a decisive role in any electoral sweep here. She has been underscoring the pluralist, inclusive ethos at the core of her politics and policies since her ascent to power, and is taking to task the weapon of choice of the saffron ecosystem, that of reaping political dividends through polarisation by vilifying minorities.
“She (Mamata) could have and should have done this (held the march) on any other day…. Her government is anti-Hindu," claimed Adhikari, unwilling to admit that the court ruling was a blow.
Adhikari alleged that Mamata was planning to hold the rally on Monday "for two reasons". "First, the minority-Muslim vote bank is turning away from her. Second, she wants to... arrest saffron flag-bearing Sanatanis, who proudly are saying Jai Shri Ram,” Adhikari added.
But some of Adhikari's colleagues in the state unit said otherwise in private.
“This (court order) is a setback, without a doubt. However, if we move court on a dozen issues a week, there will be two or three (decisions) that will not land in our favour. Those are good odds,” said a BJP source.