JAIPUR: After protests against Vasundhara Raje's 'Gaurav Yatra' in Jodhpur last week, the worried police had issued restraining notices to local people of Barmer.
The notice deters people from raising black flags and letting anybody in their house for any kind of protest, also threatening legal ramifications if found guilty. But just before Raje's yatra, the notices were taken back under pressure from the opposition who termed it as an undeclared emergency.
Barmer police issued notices specially in view of BJP 's own high profile MLA Manvendra Singh ,son of former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, who had cut off himself from Raje's yatra and called Swabhiman rally on 22 September, in direct clash with CM' s rally and opposition of Rajput community in Barmer , angry with BJP government over various issues.
"It has never happened before and I don't think that anybody's freedom of expression should be curtailed", a Barmer resident said on the condition of anonymity. Congress has called this as an undeclared emergency and totally rejected it.
Sachin Pilot, State Congress President, said,"BJP know that it is going to lose in the forthcoming elections that is why they are being opposed. Now they're trying to kill democracy, by stopping people from expressing themselves. This is against the constitution."
Police administration has been fearing a strong backlash in Chief Minister's rally 8 IPS officers, 60 RPS officers and almost 3000 police personnel have been stationed in the city to keep it peaceful.
There is a strong reason for the apprehension as the Rajput community dominant in the area is unhappy with the present government over various issues. One of them was not issuing the ticket to Jaswant Singh in the last Lok Sabha elections. His son Manvendra Singh, MLA for BJP from Barmer, has also expressed is displeasure over issuing of the police notice.
He said, "it was totally unnecessary and people were surprised by it. There is definitely discontentment among people."
Manvendra Singh himself has declared Swabhiman rally to be starting from 22nd September. The movie is being seen as a direct clash with the Chief Minister's Yatra'. Meanwhile, as suspected Vasundhara Raje's last meeting in Barmer's Adarsh stadium on Saturday afternoon saw black flags raised again which she labelled during her speech as a 'Kaala Teeka' (auspicious) for her success.
Raje's will be conducting three more rallies in Barmer on Sunday, it has to be seen that whether the yatra passes off peacefully or faces more intense protest in the desert region.