TMC scared, appeasing vote bank: BJP on Rath Yatra battle in Bengal
‘TMC fears that the Yatra would create euphoria among the people of Bengal in favour of the BJP.’
sish Kar Gupta on Friday had transferred the case back to the Single Bench Judge, Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty, asking it to reconsider the intelligence inputs on the matter by the state agencies.
The BJP, however, is likely to move the Supreme Court against the order of the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court to seek permission for the Yatra in Bengal.
The Single Bench of the Calcutta High Court headed by Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty had observed in its Thursday’s order that the rally or the Rath Yatra cannot be stopped on “vague intelligence inputs” and further observed that the “said observations are based on individualistic and egocentric perception of the concerned officers. The state government wants to stop the yatras or rallies on the basis of such vague inputs. The said order has no reasonable basis and has been passed on mere surmises. As the state is not agreeable to grant inspection of the intelligence inputs to the learned advocate appearing for the petitioner, the court need not look into the same”. The Single Bench had further said, “Without providing for reasonable restrictions, the authorities have passed an order towards total exclusion, which does not satisfy the test of reasonableness. When the yatras or rallies are not for any unlaw- ful purposes, the same ought not to be totally prohibited unless there is an imminent threat to the breach of public order; even then, the restraint must be just and reasonable. The threat to public peace and tranquility should be real and not imaginary or a mere likely possibility.”
The West Bengal government has, however, been saying that the proposed Yatra that the BJP plans is bound to create public law and order problem across the state and that the state government has received intelligence inputs of communal tensions breaking out in several parts of the state if the Yatra is permitted to be taken out in the state.
Dilip Ghosh, president of BJP’s Bengal unit, told The Sunday Guardian, “Mamata Banerjee is using all her might to stop the Yatra in the state because she knows that if the Yatra becomes successful in Bengal, the ground for the TMC in the state will become shaky. But I am confident that we will be able to take out the Yatra in the state and it will happen in the manner we had envisioned it during its initial days.” “We are exploring all legal options now. Till the time some concrete and final decision is arrived at for the Yatra, we will carry out our protest marches and other rallies in every district against the autocratic Mamata Banerjee government in Bengal,” Ghosh said.