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Cops thwart right-wing workers’ attempt to unfurl national flag on Jinnah Tower
Earlier, there were demands from BJP leaders that the state government remove the name ‘Jinnah’ from the monument and the location.
HYDERABAD: The police in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur thwarted the attempt of some right-wing activists to unfurl the national flag on Jinnah Tower, a landmark in the city, on Wednesday.
Tension prevailed at Jinnah Circle, located on the busy Mahatma Gandhi Road, when about 10 activists of Hindu Vahini, raising Jai Bharat Mata slogans, came there and made an attempt to enter the premises of Jinnah Tower to unfurl the national flag on the occasion of Republic Day.
However, the police, deployed at the centre in large numbers, immediately took them into custody and shifted them to the local police station. They were released later in the evening.
According to a local resident Shyam Sunder, the Guntur Municipal Corporation has already erected barbed wire fencing around Jinnah Tower, after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Somu Veerraju announced on December 30 that Jinnah Tower would be razed to the ground and the area would be renamed after former President of India A P J Abdul Kalam or noted Dalit poet Gurram Joshua.
The Jinnah Tower is a tall monument built in 1945 in the heart of Guntur town. It was constructed as a tower with six pillars with a dome-shaped structure atop and is being considered a symbol of harmony and peace. The location is also referred to as Jinnah Centre.
Now, the BJP leaders started demanding that the state government remove the name “Jinnah” from the monument and the location, as it symbolised the name of a person who was responsible for the partition of India.
