BJP president Amit Shah faced a different mode of protest during his maiden visit to Meghalaya capital, Shillong on Wednesday. While his visit coincided with a 12-hour bandh called by a faction of the State’s rebel group HNlC, an organisation called Thma U Rangli Juki (TUR)—meaning Peoples’ upsurge in Khasi— protested the visit of Shah by holding a protest party in Shillong by singing songs and eating beef in public.
The protest programme was organised to protest against the BJP-led NDA Government’s anti-tribal, anti-farmer land 'grabbing' law, failure to act against the incidents of attack on people's freedom of culture, religion and faith through beef ban, vandalising of churches and mosques and the “Ghar Wapasi” campaign.
The State Government, however, arranged massive deployment of security forces to stop any untoward incidents during the visit of Shah. The security forces stopped the protesters from arriving at the venue where Shah addressed a rally. The protesters later shifted their dharna to the front of the Raj Bhavan in Shillong, sang songs and ate different delicacies of beef. “This is a protest to defend our right by feasting. People from different walks of life came on their own and participated in the protest,” said one of the protesters. The protesters were also holding placards, calling for arrest of Shah and demanding freedom for minorities.
The protesters also condemned Shah for his party’s policy to push for mining of uranium against people’s wishes, allowing corporate and multinational pharmaceutical companies to profit by decontrolling prices of essential medicines, reducing of budget for North-East India, enhancing extensive militarisation and severe human rights abuse in the region as a result of the draconian laws like Armed Forces Special Powers’ Act (AFSPA) etc. “The BJP and NDA are responsible for attacks on minorities and their places of worship, making the school curriculum non-secular and gagging of people’s freedom of expression,” the TUR said in a statement.