High Court allows former Army personnel to hold protest in Kolkata against Bengal CM's remarks

Kolkata, Sep 10 (IANS) A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Wednesday, permitted a group of former defence personnel to hold a protest in Kolkata on Thursday in protest against remarks made by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, which were apparently derogatory to the Indian Armed Forces.

After being denied permission from the police for the protest demonstration to be conducted on Tuesday, this group of former defence personnel, currently residing in West Bengal, approached Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh for permission.

The matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, and at the end of the hearing, Justice Ghosh allowed the protest at the base of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in central Kolkata, but not with a gathering of more than 225 individuals.

Justice Ghosh also fixed the timing of the protest between 12 noon and 5 p.m. The Judge also clearly ruled that no BJP leader or activist would be allowed to be present at the protest demonstration during that period.

Last month, the Indian Army personnel dismantled a Trinamool Congress demonstration stage in Kolkata's Maidan area, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Army’s Eastern Command. The Army’s contention was that although the permission for the demonstration was taken just for two days, the ruling party did not remove it for almost a month after that, despite repeated reminders.

While the Army personnel were dismantling the stage, the Chief Minister reached the spot. Soon after, the defence personnel left the spot with their dismantling work being completed.

However, the Chief Minister and the ruling Trinamool Congress gave the entire development a different narrative. She said that around 200 Army personnel ran away from the sport after she arrived there.

“I asked them why they were running away. I told them that they were my friends. It was not their fault, and what they did was based on what the BJP told them to do. They did it, based on what Delhi told them,” the Chief Minister said then.

A group of former defence personnel strongly opposed such remarks from the Chief Minister. The former Army personnel's organisation sought permission from the police to protest at the foot of the Gandhi statue in protest of the Chief Minister's remarks. The state offered an alternative location. After that, this group of former defence personnel approached the Calcutta High Court.

--IANS

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