NEW DELHI: New Delhi is a city under siege as it braces for an enormous demonstration by Hindu fundamentalists to be held on Feb.25.
Army was alerted in the capital and about 50,000 supporters of the Right Wingh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were arrested all over the country to thwart the proposed rally on Thursday even as the BJP threatened to move the Supreme Court against alleged “repressive measures.”
The Federal Government ruled out lifting of the ban on the proposed rally and warned that anyone indulging in violence will be sternly dealt with.
Meanwhile, faced with massive police arrangements and pressures from the saner elements within the RSS plan, the BJP has now decided not to force their entry into the Boat Club by breaking police cordons on Thursday next. A decision to this effect was taken by the party’s campaign committee hours after the government’s decision to deploy about two lakh police and paramilitary forces to seal the entire area around Boat Club was made known. V.K.Malhotra presided over the meeting which has now appealed to the party workers to offer ‘peaceful” arrest when the police stop them from approaching the banned area. They have been specifically told not to engage themselves in any type of confrontation with the police, the BJP leader, P.K.Chandla, told newsmen in New Delhi after the meeting.
It has been claimed that already about 50,000 workers had arrived from different states to push their entry into the venue. Police have information that specially trained workers were assigned the task of sneaking i into the area by adopting ingenious and to clash with the forces at the most vulnerable points. The idea, home ministry sources say, is to create a situation of clashes like the forced kar seva in Ayodhya when Mulayam Singh Yadav was the chief minister.
Though the official BJP explanation for his sudden climb down is the part’s fear of ‘antisocial elements’ creating troubles, it is obvious that the massive police preparations have totally unnerved the organizes. The police have decided to clear the entire area by Tuesday. A few workers have arrived from different states in response to the BJP’s appeal to mob Boat Club but many of them have been arrested.
The increasing differences among the senior leaders over pushing such a hard line are quite known. They feel that though peaceful protest is a quite legitimate way of protest, forceful entry by openly clashing with the police would damage the image of the party with nurse’s high hopes of wresting power at the Center in the next elections on Ram wave. However, the hardliners had all the while got the upper hand.
The elements are also upset over the adverse publicity against the BJP. US President Clinton’s remarks about ‘religious clashes are an indicator in this regard. Already, about 50 foreign TV crew have arrived Lo cover the rally.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 26, 1993
