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Will not tolerate vandalism, hooliganism: CM Adhikari on Park Circus violence
Senior police officers said the Park Circus protesters hurtled stones when they were asked not to demonstrate at the busy intersection
West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday ordered a crackdown on people who attack police personnel, stating that the state would not see a home minister more severe than him if Sunday’s vandalism at Kolkata’s Park Circus were repeated.
“Let it be clear to those who carried out such activities at Park Circus and other places that this was your last. We will not allow such actions again. If you do, then there won’t be a more severe home minister than me,” he said.
“This was planned. Someone wrote social media posts before the incident happened. Police are investigating. Earlier police were non-functional because of some political ill will. They are free now,” Adhikari said, without naming former chief minister Mamata Banerjee, whom the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused of appeasing Muslims before defeating her in the two-phase polls in April.
People pelted stones at police and the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) at the Park Circus seven-point road intersection while protesting against an anti-encroachment demolition drive and restrictions on prayers on public roads and use of microphones at mosques ordered by the new BJP government. The government also ordered an immediate shutdown of unauthorised slaughterhouses and cattle markets.
Forty people were arrested till Monday afternoon.
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Senior police officers said the Park Circus protesters hurtled stones when they were asked not to demonstrate at the busy intersection. Several police vehicles and public buses were damaged.
Adhikari met the injured police and CAPF officers and constables at the deputy commissioner’s (south-east division) office before holding a meeting.
Some demonstrators on Sunday claimed that grievances over alleged restrictions on using loudspeakers during religious prayers and curbs on offering prayers on roads also contributed to the tensions.
This was the second incident since the restrictions were imposed by the BJP government.
On May 15, a mob vandalised a police outpost at Jahangir Moholla in West Burdwan district’s Asansol town after Friday prayers. Police arrested 26 people.
“My message is clear: zero tolerance. We are not allowing this sort of vandalism, hooliganism, rowdism and anti-national and anti-social activities. I am saying my last word as home minister. If a single policeman is attacked then this government will apply law and go as far as possible. People will not only be arrested but the government will also closely monitor the cases until the accused are convicted,” Adhikari said.
“Police personnel should follow only the BNS (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita) and orders from senior officers. Don’t consider the party, religious group or community an offender belongs to. Don’t see if he is close to any influential person. Get out of that mindset,” Adhikari said.
Sunday’s flare-up came days after bulldozers rolled into Kolkata’s Tiljala area as part of the state’s demolition drive against alleged illegal constructions following a fire accident in a leather goods factory which claimed two lives on Tuesday. A third man died in hospital on Sunday.
Adhikari said people have the right to demonstrate as long as it is lawful.
“This is a democratic country. Everybody has the right to demonstrate and raise lawful and logical demands. Any individual, religious group or political figure can meet the officers-in-charge of police stations and present demands. Assembling people, raising religious slogans and pelting stones have stopped in Srinagar. It is time to stop these in Bengal as well,” he said.
“I appeal to those (the demonstrators) to refrain from such activities. Don’t assume that the hands of the police will be tied, as it used to be during the erstwhile government. You are grossly mistaken,” Adhikari said.
“Stone pelting ended in Kashmir with the abolition of Article 370. But here in Bengal, they got habituated thinking the government would do nothing to them. The police also lived in fear, but that is all over now. Those days are gone when policemen would get injured and the home minister would watch from the comfort of an air-conditioned chamber,” he said.
On Monday, Maulana Shafique Qasmi, the Imam of Kolkata’s iconic Nakhoda Masjid welcomed all the restrictions, including the one on the slaughter of cows for Qurbani during Eid.
“I am with the government on this and I appeal to the people as well. No prayers should take place on roads. The large prayers during the two Eid festivals are held at night when our Hindu brothers sleep. We don’t need roads for prayers for the rest of the year,” the Imam said in a social media post.
“I also appeal to my Muslim brothers not to sacrifice cows. In fact, they should stop eating beef for good. Let the Central government declare cow as a protected national animal,” he said.
