Kolkata: The division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Friday directed three BJP representatives to hold a meeting with West Bengal chief secretary, Home Secretary and the Director General of Police by December 12 to prepare guidelines for the proposed ‘Save Democracy Yatra’ by December 14.
Earlier today, the division bench of Justice Biswanath Samaddar and Justice Arindam Mukherjee accepted the BJP’s plea repealing the order of the single bench, which put all the three ‘yatras’ on hold till January 9.
During the hearing, the bench termed the delay of state administration and police over replying to BJP’s letters (seeking permission for the events) as ‘astounding silence’ and proposed to modify the order of the single bench.
Welcoming the court's order, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “It’s the victory of people. We are happy that the division bench deleted the ‘injunctive portion’ of Thursday’s order by the single bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakravarty.”
On Thursday, referring to the District Intelligence Branch’s (DIB) input on the possible law and order issue on religious ground – West Bengal government’s Advocate General Kishore Dutta informed Justice Chakraborty that the ‘rath yatra’ may cause communal tension as Cooch Behar district, where party president Amit Shah was scheduled to commence the party’s 41-day rath yatra, has a history of communal issues in the past.
During the hearing, BJP counsel Anindya Mitra assured the bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty that it will hold peaceful yatras. However, he also stressed that law and order responsibility lies with the state government.
Meanwhile, Amit Shah on Friday while addressing a press conference in New Delhi vouched to go ahead with the party events and public meet in West Bengal only after getting permission from the court.
Shah had said, “Please try to understand. Our series of ‘yatras’ scheduled on November 7, 9 and 14 was postponed. It was not cancelled. We will do it soon.”
Reiterating that the legal battle is going on regarding permission to hold the ‘yatras,’ Shah added, “In Bengal, police and administration are working together on the instructions of Mamata Banerjee. Mamata ji is trying to gag our voice through undemocratic manner. We are not going to bow down and in any cost our ‘yatra’ will happen soon and I will flag off all the three yatras. If required we will go to the Supreme Court for justice but we will make these yatras happen in Bengal.”
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