Kolkata police imposes ban on holding law violation movement by political parties

KOLKATA: Just a week before the proposed law violation movement by the opposition CPIM and Left parties and BJP, Kolkata Police on Saturday imposed a ban on holding such movement by all political parties in the metropolis. Not only the political parties are barred from organising law violation movement, they would also not be able to organise public meetings at the Metro channel here which is considered to be the heart of the city.

City police commissioner Surajit Kar Purakayantha told reporters after holding an all-party meeting at the police headquarters in Lalbazar that "we have urged all the political parties not to go for law violation in the heart of the city. We also told these parties that the city police did not have proper infrastructure to cope with agitations like law violation. I think our discussion with the political parties is very fruitful." But all the key political parties like CPIM, Congress and BJP have turned down the police chief's plea and declared that they would not go by the police instruction regarding organising law violation movement.

"Holding political movements at Metro channel cause serious inconveniences to the common people and create huge traffic congestion which is difficult to manage during the later part of a day when such movements are organised," the city police chief informed.

The CPIM is supposed to hold a law violation movement in the heart of Kolkata on May 31. The BJP too will go for a similar movement on June 1. Both the parties have decided to ignore the police prohibition regarding holding law violation at the month-end and first day of June.

CPIM central committee member Md. Salim told ET on Saturday that "Mamata Banerjee's government has no honour for democratic practices and it is now trying to thwart democratic rights of the opposition parties by using the police. Law violation movement is a year old practice to highlight the struggling people's demands against any elected government. No government in the past had attempted so bluntly to frustrate the democratic set up of the state by imposing ban on law violation movement. In fact, this particular form of movement was a brainchild of Mahatma Gandhi. But now Mamata's government is making all possible move to stop such movement in her own interests. She does not want the opposition parties to raise their voices against the anti-people policies her government is pursuing and that is why she has engaged her police to scuttle such a movement."

BJP state president Rahul Sinha also refused to oblige the city police chief by withdrawing their law violation movement on June 1. "We will go for our movement on June 1 despite police chief's threat. If anything untoward happens on June 1,the onus will be on the police," Sinha pointed out.

Interestingly, a Left student activist Sudipta Gupta had died in police custody on April 2 this year during a law violation movement organised by the CPIM's students arm Students Federation Of India (SFI). The SFI was protesting against the state government's decision of not holding any students union elections in the state colleges and universities. Sudipta's father has moved Calcutta High Court seeking a CBI investigation into the death of his son in police custody. Sudipta, along with some SFI activists were arrested by the city police for joining the law violation movement and the youth died in police custody while he and his fellow activists were being shifted to a jail from near Esplanade where the law violation was organised.