Apprehending a law and order situation that might arise out of likely communally sensitive speeches at the event, the Pune police on Monday denied permission for a Muslim reservation convention being organised in Pune’s Golibar Maidan on February 4, where All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (MIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi was slated to be one of the key speakers.
less than 46 hours after the Shiv Sena threatened to disrupt the convention planned jointly by the Action Committee, Maharashtra and Mulniwasi Muslim Manch if it was allowed to be held, the Pune police invoked Sections 33 and 37(1)(3) of the Bombay Police Act, 1951 to refuse permission to the event. The police cited maintenance of law and order as one of the reasons for denying permission to the organisers to hold the convention.
Ahead of the convention, Sena’s Pune unit chief Vinayak Nimhan had, in a memorandum submitted to Police Commissioner Satish Mathur on Saturday, apprehended that given the “rabid anti-Hindu views” of Owaisi, the Muslim reservation convention might trigger communal situation in the city. “Though we are per se not against the issue of Muslim reservations being discussed at the convention, we are apprehensive that anti-Hindu speeches to be delivered by leaders like Owaisi might contribute to law and order problems in the city. That’s why we would like the police to deny permission to the convention,” Nimhan had said in his letter.
Initially, the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) — under which Golibar Maidan comes — had denied permission to the convention. In his letter to the organisers of the convention, senior Inspector of Wanwori Police station Bapurao Kale said that the permission to hold the convention in an open ground like Golibar Maidan was being denied to the organisers on the ground that February 4 was a working day and that it was essential for the police to maintain law and order in the city.
However, Kale said that the police were not averse to considering a request from the organisers to hold the convention inside a closed auditorium instead of an open ground. Meanwhile, the law enforcers’ decision to deny permission to hold the convention at Golibar Maidan has not gone well with the organisers.
“let us face it the convention is not being held under the MIM banner. The Maharashtra Action Committee and Mulniwasi Muslim Manch are jointly organising the event. Apart from Owaisi, former Judge of the Bombay Justice (retired) BG Kolse-Patil was to be another key speaker at the convention. leaders from the Aam Aadmi Party were also invited to he convention,” Anjum Inamdar, a spokesperson for the organisers, said.
“The reservation for Maharashtra’s Muslims is a social issue that concerns all communities across the State. Sena activists can also come and judge for themselves whether we have political agenda behind organising the event,” Inamdar said.
This is not for the first time that Owaisi has been denied permission to address a public rally in Maharashtra. However, the police had allowed Owaisi to address a similar Muslim reservation convention a Beed in Marathwada region last month.