KOLKATA: Within a week, West Bengal witnessed violence in Howrah and Hooghly during Ram Navami processions. The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to seek assistance from paramilitary forces during Hanuman Jayanti celebrations on Thursday by requesting the Union Home Ministry. The Centre was also asked to deploy the Central forces by the state.
“The state police are required to take all steps with the assistance of paramilitary force or other Central force to prevent any untoward incident so that the public is not put in jeopardy,’’ a division bench comprising acting chief justice T.S. Sivagnaman and justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya said. The bench also directed that no person, either a political personality or leader or even a common man, will make any statement in public about the festival to be celebrated on Thursday considering the sensitivity.
The High Court passed the directive responding to a PIL filed by leader of the Opposition and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari after the incidents of violence from Howrah’s Shibpur and Rishra in Hooghly were reported during Ram Navami processions.
The bench also asked the state government represented by the advocate general to specify the steps to be taken to avoid any untoward incident during the religious celebration. Responding to it, the state submitted that it has imposed 27 conditions on those seeking to carry out processions.
In the submission that state said the trend of celebrating the Hanuman Jayanti festival started in Bengal five years ago and it not used to be one of the regular events celebrated in the state before that.
Amitava Chakrrabarty, organisation secretary of the West Bengal Vishwa Hindu Parishad, said processions on Hanuman Jayanti would be taken out where permission has already been granted on the basis of conditions. “In other places, the celebrations will be carried out in temples,’’ he said. The state decided to deploy paramilitary forces in three districts.