RSS Gets Permission To Hold March In Tamil Nadu, But There’s A Rider

Chennai:

The Madras High Court has permitted Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, to hold marches in 44 places across Tamil Nadu on November 6. The state government had earlier permitted the march in only three of the 50 places the right-wing outfit had sought permission for. The RSS, the court ruled, should conduct the marches peacefully or face consequences.

The court has, however, denied permission for the march in six communally sensitive places, including Coimbatore, Pollachi, and Nagercoil.

Ruling that it found nothing adverse in the reports by intelligence agencies, the court also allowed RSS, the ideological parent of the BJP, to seek permission for the march in even the six other locations after two months.

Coimbatore had recently witnessed a car explosion a day before Diwali in which one man, Jameesha Mubin, was killed. The case is being probed by the National Investigation Agency amid fears that Mr Mubin had plans to wreak major damage.

The Tamil Nadu government had earlier denied permission despite the court permitting it on October 2. The RSS had then moved a contempt plea.

The state’s Director General of Police (DGP) in a circular to Superintendents of Police (SP) and Police Commissioners asked them to grant permission subject to local law and order situations.

The state had cited law and order concerns then, in the aftermath of the ban on the Popular Front of India.

In a series of molotov cocktail attacks, kerosene-filled bottles were hurled at the homes and properties of targeted individuals and organisations, including the RSS and the BJP.

Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, an ally of the ruling DMK, too had sought permission to hold a human chain for peace the same day.

In a plea challenging the initial court nod to the RSS march on Gandhi’s birthday, it had argued that it was an RSS member who shot Mahatma Gandhi dead and “his assassination was celebrated by the RSS”. It was unfair to hold the rally on his birth anniversary, it had said.