GUWAHATI: Taking precautionary measures after the Tinsukia incident where the district BJP president Lankeshwar Moran was attacked by protestors on January 30, the police are all set to beef up security measures for political events in Guwahati as well as the entire state.
Moran was on his way to attend a programme organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) when the attack took place. A mob of agitators, who were protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, waved black flags in front of Moran. However, they suddenly turned violent and started thrashing him. Following this, Moran had to be taken to the civil hospital for treatment.
The Guwahati commissioner of police, Deepak Kumar, told G Plus that the overall security arrangement is going to be beefed up across the state.
“We will not be increasing the security of each political leader but safety measures, on the whole, will be improved in the coming days especially for political events,” said Kumar.
Speaking about the measures undertaken by the police to control black flag protests in Guwahati, the commissioner said that police personnel in the city are on alert for curbing any such incident.
“Fortunately, such an incident has not taken place in Guwahati till now. However, we are always on the alert now and we also try talking to the protestors during any agitation to prevent it from turning violent,” Kumar told G Plus.
On the other hand, the state BJP leaders have strongly condemned the attack on Moran and other such incidents carried out by different organisations. “We strongly condemn this act, these miscreants want to create disturbance in the state in the name of protests. This is total hooliganism in the name of democracy,” stated BJP state president Ranjit Dass.
Further, addressing a press conference on Thursday, the party vice president Pradip Thakuria and MLA Nomal Momin said that no one should be allowed to take law in their hands and that all protests should be carried out in a democratic manner.
“We request the state government to thoroughly investigate the matter and identify the culprits at the earliest. We will also be submitting a letter to the chief minister requesting him to set up an enquiry into the matter,” said Thakuria.
BJP to step up Security for leaders Outside Guwahati
The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) members informed G Plus that they will also step up security for their party leaders and members in far-flung areas and districts.
“The party is planning to increase the security of our party leaders in other districts and remote areas in light of the recent events where black flags were waved by protestors,” informed a party member.
He added that even though BJP leaders in the state are mostly all members of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and they usually do not require security and are capable of protecting themselves, additional safety measures are being planned for areas outside Guwahati.
Various indigenous organisations have been protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 for the past several days. The BJP-led state government has faced flak over its decision to pass the Bill which was passed by the Lok Sabha on January 8 and is waiting to be passed by the Rajya Sabha. The Bill has seen various protests from across the state over the past few months which intensified since it was passed by the Lok Sabha.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 seeks to amend the Citizenship Act 1955 by making Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan to become eligible for Indian citizenship.
The Bill proposes to relax the norms of a person to apply for citizenship by relaxing the 11- year requirement for residing in India to six years for people belonging to the earlier mentioned six religious communities.
Following the attack on Moran, the BJP carried out a state-wide protest on Friday, February 1. As part of the protests, a march was also carried out in Guwahati.