On Saturday, days after the Calcutta High Court ordered the TMC-led state government to respond to BJP’s requests seeking permission to organise a “rath yatra” in the state, the BJP unit in West Bengal filed a caveat in the Supreme Court.
According to state BJP president Dilip Ghosh, the caveat will ensure that the party is notified and given a hearing in case the state government moves the Supreme Court against the High Court’s verdict, which seems likely given recent developments.
What has happened so far?
After the West Bengal government refused to allow the event saying it may cause communal tension, a single-judge bench of the High Court comprising Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty refused to permit the BJP to conduct a “rath yatra” in Coochbehar.
The state’s BJP unit then moved the division bench of the court against the verdict on Friday, which severely criticised the West Bengal government on Friday for not responding to BJP’s letters, seeking permission for three “rath yatras” in the state. Calling the silence “astonishing and astounding”, the bench headed by Justices Biswanath Somadder and A. Mukherjee directed top officials to take a decision on the processions by December 14.
Dilip Ghosh on Sunday claimed that the TMC-led state government had still not responded to requests for a meeting over the series of rath yatras supposed to begin last Friday, December 7. The Mamata Banerjee-led government is yet to respond to this barrage of criticism.
What will happen next?
The chief secretary, the home secretary, and the director general of police (DGP) will hold a meeting with three representatives of the BJP by December 12 and take a decision on the matter by December 14, the division bench has directed.
The BJP wrote to the West Bengal government on Saturday, stating its readiness to join discussions over its proposed “rath yatra”, as directed by the High Court the previous day. ”We had sent the letters on Saturday and had requested for a meeting,” said Ghosh.
However, according to Ghosh, a senior police officer called up party officials on Sunday and said that the DGP was “very busy”. “He declined to give us any specific time frame within which we can sit for a discussion with him [DGP] regarding the ‘rath yatra’ programme,” Ghosh said. Letters to the home secretary have also been in vain.
“We are yet to receive any response from the state government,” Ghosh said at a press conference, adding, “We are apprehensive that the government may move the Supreme Court.”
“We have filed a caveat in the Supreme Court to ensure that we do not go unheard if the Bengal government decides to move the top court against the order passed by a division bench of the Calcutta High Court,” explained Ghosh on Sunday.
What is this contentious rath yatra about?
BJP chief Amit Shah was to travel to the state and inaugurate the party’s “Save Democracy Rally“ covering all the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal, ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in 2019. Three rath yatras were scheduled to begin as a part of this mega-rally, from Coochbehar last Friday, from Kakdwip on Sunday, and from the Tarapith temple in Birbhum district on December 14.
The BJP had sought a meeting with state authorities on October 29 to discuss the raths possible routes and three AC buses had already ben brought in from neighbouring BJP-ruled Jharkhand, suggesting that the party was confident the yatra would happen even without an official confirmation.
BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who travelled all the way from Delhi to speak to the DGP, dismissed claims that the rath yatra would fan communal tension. “Not a single incident of communal riot has taken place in Bengal due to any BJP rally or programme. The allegations against us are completely baseless,” he said at the press conference on Sunday.
Speaking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s December 16 rally in Siliguri, which was supposed to be a part of the ‘rath yatra’ campaign, Ghosh said he was still hopeful that it would take place.
Why does it matter?
Quelling the tide of nationalist Hindutva sentiments, which the rath yatra obviously signifies, is a commendable administrative move for the TMC government, but it is also a double-edged sword for Mamata Banerjee who is known for favouring the minorities (Muslim voters form 28% of her vote bank) often at the cost of the Hindu voters her majority rests on.
It was height of embarrassment for an administration, which took months and yet failed to take a call on an important issue, said senior BJP leader Jay Prakash Majumdar. By stopping the chariot at the last minute from rolling into one of the few states BJP has failed to make a mark in, Banerjee’s government may have exposed the red-tapism and bureaucratic delays that fuels anti-TMC sentiments and consolidates the Hindu vote bank against Banerjee. But from an executive point of view, this was one of the few instances where a regional leader had boldly decided to challenge Amit Shah’s juggernaut.
The last time, it was Lalu Prasad Yadav who stood up to L.K. Advani in 1990, arresting the BJP leader to prevent his havoc-wreaking rath yatra from entering Bihar, shortly before the Babri Masjid massacre.
Prarthana Mitra is a staff writer at Qrius