Headlines
Togadia prevented from making speeches in Assam
Guwahati, Feb 12
Assam Police Thursday
prevented Praveen Togadia from delivering speeches in two places in the
state, even as Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said his government has not
imposed any ban on the VHP leader.
Togadia was supposed to address two Hindu Mahasabhas in Nalbari and Guwahati.
However,
when the Viswa Hindu Parishad leader arrived Thursday at the Lokapriya
Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) airport in Guwahati from Silchar,
he was handed a letter by the city police saying he would not be
allowed to speak in any public meeting as it might "disturb public peace
and order in Guwahati and other areas in a serious manner".
Before
reaching Guwhati, Togadia had addressed a public meeting in Patharkandi
in Karimganj district, where he reportedly encouraged religious
minority groups to convert to Hinduism.
"... Praveen Togadia is
likely to make similar inflammatory speeches if allowed to address the
meeting in Guwahati, thereby disturbing public peace and order in
Guwahati and other areas in a serious manner," said the letter issued by
the Guwahati Police Commissionerate.
"... in exercise of the
powers conferred upon me under section 144 of the criminal procedure
code, I do hereby direct Praveen Togadia to abstain from attending the
meeting, making any speech therein or making an inflammatory speech
through any media in any part of the city," Commissioner of Police
Jyotirmoy Chakravarty was quoted as saying in the letter.
VHP leaders in Guwahati said they had taken permission for Togadia's public meeting.
"We
had taken prior permission from the administration for organising the
public meeting to be addressed by the VHP leader. It's a conspiracy to
debar our leader from speaking at a public place," said VHP leader
Abhijit Deka.
He said the Nalbari district administration also
locked the venue in Nalbari town, where Togadia was supposed to address a
public meeting.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Gogoi Thursday said there was no ban or restriction imposed by the government on the VHP leader.
"We
have not banned him as yet. We want him to deliver his speech so that
people of Assam know how communal he is," Gogoi told newsmen on the
sidelines of a programme in Guwahati.