DEHRADUN: Even as the organisation of village heads has changed the plans on holding a mahapanchayat in Purola of Uttarkashi district on June 15 after the police took a firm stand, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal have come out openly and announced that they will hold a mahapanchayat against ‘love jihad'.
On the other hand, the Muslim community in Dehradun has announced a mahapanchayat on June 18. The administration has not yet taken a call on it yet. Swami Darshan Bharti, the founder of Devbhoomi Raksha Abhiyan, a Hindu organisation that first announced the mahapanchayat, was placed under house arrest by police at his Dehradun residence on Wednesday evening when he was about to leave for Purola.
“The movement cannot be crushed by putting me under house arrest like this, the mahapanchayat will be held at all costs,” he said. Meanwhile, a vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah in the Supreme Court expressed its unwillingness to entertain a petition seeking to stop the proposed mahapanchayat.
The court said the petitioners, the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, may approach the high court. The case will now be heard in the Nainital High Court on Thursday. “We will hold a mahapanchayat in Purola against ‘love jihad’ at all costs, our aim is clear that we will not tolerate demographic imbalance in the district and the state,” Virendra Rawat, executive district president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad-Uttarkashi, told this daily.
The district administration has imposed Section 144 in Purola Nagar area till June 19. Sub-divisional magistrate Purola Devanand Sharma said, “Section 144 will be strictly followed and no such activity will be allowed”. V Murugasan, additional director general of police, law and order, told this newspaper, “The border of Uttarkashi has been sealed by the police and people going for the mahapanchayat from outside
districts are now being stopped at the border”.
The Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) has also been dispatched along with additional forces to ensure that 144 is not violated in any manner. Uttarkashi Bharatiya Janata Party district president Satyendra Rana lamented how the issue of Purola was being portrayed negatively by the national and international media. Speaking to The New Indian Express, Rana said, “The statements of national minority leaders smell of communalism, while people from their community are constantly participating in peace meetings with the district administration”.
How the events unfolded