CALCUTTA HC SAYS ‘NO’ TO RATH YATRA

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday said it cannot give permission at this stage for the BJP rath yatra in Coochbehar, scheduled to be flagged off by party president Amit Shah on Friday, after the West Bengal government refused to allow the event on the grounds that it might cause communal tension.

The BJP, however, has decided to contest the ruling and the Calcutta High Court's Division Bench is likely to hear the Rath Yatra challenge petition at 10.30 am on Friday.

The BJP was scheduled to hold three ‘rath yatras’ starting from different parts and these were to traverse all the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies.

The court directed on Thursday that superintendents of police of all districts in West Bengal will file a report by December 21 to it on the holding of ‘rath yatra’ rallies by the BJP, after hearing all the district presidents of the party. The state government had earlier denied permission for the rally and argued in court that Cooch Behar is a sensitive area and the state doesn't have the machinery to maintain law and order required to manage such a rally.

Asked by the judge as to who will take responsibility if anything untoward happens, BJP counsel Anindya Mitra submitted that the party will hold a peaceful rally, but that it was the duty of the state government to maintain law and order.

Invitations were sent to all the Chief Ministers of the BJP ruled states and union ministers, including Yogi Adityanath, Biplab Deb, Nirmala Sitharaman, Raman Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Sarbananda Sonowal and Arun Jaitley for the rath yatra. At the conclusion of the 'yatra', the BJP planned to hold a rally in Kolkata, which was likely to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.