Nabanna turns fortress ahead of rally: Tuesday 'apolitical' protest litmus test for TMC, BJP

 The authorities are not sure how many people will take part in the protest rally called by the Paschim Banga Chhatra Samaj and want to be prepared

CBI officials raid former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh’s office on Sunday: Picture by Sanat Kr Sinha

Pranesh Sarkar, Calcutta, 26.08.24 :  The Bengal government is set to put in place an unprecedented security arrangement in and around the state secretariat on Tuesday in view of the “March to Nabanna” call given by a little-known organisation.

The authorities are not sure how many people will take part in the protest rally called by the Paschim Banga Chhatra Samaj and want to be prepared.

According to an order sent to the police superintendents and police commissioners, the state government has sent a requisition for 13 officers in the ranks of superintendents of police (SP) and deputy commissioner of police (DCP), 15 officers in the rank of additional SP, 22 officers in the rank of deputy SP and 26 officers in the rank of inspector. All these officers will be brought to Howrah from various districts, including places as far as Alipurduar.

More than 1,500 ASIs, constables and traffic constables will also be brought in from various districts to deploy in and around Nabanna on Tuesday.

“All these officers and policemen would have to report to Shibpur Police Lines in Howrah by 4pm on August 26… They will be deployed

to maintain law and order in and around Nabanna on Tuesday. A total of over 2,500 policemen would be deployed around Nabanna on that day,” said a senior government official.

Senior bureaucrats termed the security arrangement as unprecedented as they could not recall a past instance where such a large number of police officers and policemen were brought into the state secretariat.

“We had witnessed a massive arrangement during the BJP’s Nabanna Abhiyan in 2021. But such a large number of policemen were not brought in to guard Nabanna at that time too,” said a bureaucrat.

Sources in the state administration said that they were being forced to deploy a huge number of policemen around Nabanna as they did not want to take a chance after the massive “Reclaim the Night” rallies on the night of August 14 where a large number of women had come out to the streets following calls on social media.

“This call has also been given on social media… Intelligence inputs suggest that many are showing interest in taking part in the rally called from an apolitical platform,” said an official.

A bureaucrat explained that in the case of political programmes, the parties need to take permission from the police.

“So the police usually have an idea from where the rallies would start and how many would take part… But in this case, the police are completely in the dark as nobody took permission for the rallies. The authorities don’t have any experience of dealing with such a rally,” said the bureaucrat.

The authorities were also confused about the timing of the programme.

“Some posts in social media invited people to join the rallies at 2pm from Santragachi in Howrah and College Square in Calcutta. There were other posts that invited people to gather at Howrah Station at 1pm. So, we are not sure when and by which route the rallies would progress,” said a senior police officer.

A senior police officer said that three youths held a media conference on Friday and introduced themselves as students while claiming that they had given the “March to Nabanna” call.

“But it is still not clear from where the rallies would start and how many people would participate… This is the reason why we are keeping ourselves ready to deal with any kind of situation,” a senior police officer said.

A senior official said the authorities had to make an unprecedented security arrangement as the state government did not get a breather in the Supreme Court and Calcutta High Court on the issue.

“Kapil Sibal, who was representing the state in the RG Kar case in the apex court, had mentioned the August 27 ‘March to Nabanna’ and requested the court to lay down an SoP... But the court did not entertain the plea,” said an official.

On the contrary, the apex court had observed that peaceful protesters should not be harassed.

The state government then moved the Calcutta High Court urging it to lay down an SoP as the organisers did not take permission from the police.

“But the state did not get any relief in the high court too... So, we had to make arrangements to tackle any kind of agitation,” said another official.