The Calcutta High Court on Friday spiked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s efforts to deny permission to BJP president Amit Shah’s November 30 rally at Kolkata’s politically important Victoria House Crossing grounds. The court allowed the BJP’s petition for holding the rally and directed the contending parties to construct the stage and do the other formalities under the supervision of a two-member team of special observers from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the Fire Brigade.
A happy State BJP president Rahul Sinha greeted the legal victory saying “this is a historic victory because never in the history of Bengal has a ruling party made such neurotic efforts to stonewall a meeting of the Opposition party. One had never seen such heinous conspiracy in history. We are happy to have defeated their evil designs.”
Quoting the High Court order, Sinha said the BJP was the first political party to hold a meeting on the sprawling grounds by first complying with the law and so there was “no reason to intervene and stall this meeting.” The BJP felt proud because of the court’s observation, he said.
Jolted by the order overruling the State’s contention the Government was making a last ditch effort to stall the meeting by filing an appeal before a Division Bench.
The Kolkata Police, Fire Department and the Trinamool-controlled KMC had rejected the BJP’s application seeking permission for the rally, forcing the party to move the court for the second time in the last one week. The BJP contended before the court how it could be denied permission to hold a rally there when at the same venue on July 21 the TMC had held a similar rally.
“The Trinamool Congress is getting jittery by the day with the rise of the BJP in the State. There is no doubt that they are going to lose power. So they are taking all kinds of steps to gag Democracy,” Sinha said, adding his party would “see the end of it all and will go any distance to get justice.”
Victoria House Crossing at Esplanade East in Central Kolkata can accommodate about 3 to 4 lakh people and only the left and the Trinamool Congress had in the past held such big rallies in the area. While the
left was debarred from holding similar meetings after its defeat in 2011 the Trinamool continued to get police permission to organize meetings at the place. Sinha said the party was expecting more than a lakh people for the rally on November 30.
Welcoming Friday’s judgement BJP’s central observer for Bengal Siddharth Nath Singh said: “It is a rap on the anarchist style of Mamata Banerjee’s governance. They had created multiple layers to stop
the rally despite the BJP seeking permission since July 22. Finally, Democracy has won in Bengal and it is the beginning of the end of Mamata Banerjee’s regime.”