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State govt not concerned about public: Calcutta HC on TMC’s Aug 5 gherao event
Chief justice of Calcutta HC TS Sivagnanam said that the bottom line is that the state is not concerned about the public and the office-goers
The Calcutta high court on Monday observed that the state government was not concerned about the public while passing an interim order striking down the ruling Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) plan to gherao houses of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders across the state on August 5.
“Such exercise or program shall not be conducted. Forget about who the complainant is. This is going beyond the limits. This is impermissible,” said a division bench presided over by chief justice of Calcutta HC TS Sivagnanam.
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, while addressing the party’s Martyr’s Day rally on July 21 had announced that party workers would gherao the houses of all BJP leaders across the state on August 5.
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“The bottom line is you are not concerned about the public. You are not concerned about the office goers. Might is right,” the bench stated while hearing a petition by Suvendu Adhikari, leader of the opposition in the state legislative assembly.
The state advocate general told the court that it was just a statement made by the leader from a political program and that the state has not granted any permission yet.
“Such a statement made by a person holding such a responsible position presupposes that the program has already been planned. You do all your political exercises, but please leave the public alone, please allow the machinery to function, let your officers attend offices,” the bench said while adding that the no work could be held on July 21 in the court after 11:30am.
Even though Banerjee had said that houses of BJP leaders would be gheraoed, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said that the gherao should be held at least 100 metres away from the BJP leaders’ houses and that they should be peaceful and symbolic.
“When somebody says I am going to plant a bomb at 3pm in some place, will the state police take cognizance? If suppose tomorrow somebody says that he is going to gherao the entire high court premises, will the state not take any cognizance of it,” the bench stated.
After the high court’s order, the BJP took a dig at the TMC.
“In another loss of face, Calcutta high court restrains Mamata Banerjee and her party from going ahead with their plan to ‘gherao’ homes of BJP leaders and workers on 5th Aug,” Amit Malviya, in-charge of BJP’s IT cell wrote on his official Twitter account.
Reacting to the HC order, TMC spokesperson Tapas Roy said, “Abhishek Banerjee had announced a program from the July 21 rally. TMC supremo while speaking from the same rally had made some modifications in that program. The TMC would hold political programs in every block against how the BJP-led Centre has frozen all funds”.
