The Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha has said it will go ahead with the proposed Mangaluru Chalo motorcycle rally as planned despite the police denying permission for the rally.
Morcha State president and MP Pratap Simha told The Hindu that denial of permission indicates how desperate the government is to curtail the rally. MP Nalin Kumar Kateel said the refusal indicated Congress’ fear of losing the Assembly polls and added holding protests is everyone’s democratic right. Mr. Kateel extended an open challenge to the government to stop the rally if it can.
More than 20,000 motorcyclist morcha members will participate in the rally starting from five different locations in the State and culminating in Mangaluru, he told The Hindu.
Mr. Simha said Yuva Morcha had elaborately planned the rally well in advance and had submitted applications for permission to jurisdictional police. “We assure that morcha members will not violate the law; but if someone else creates trouble, it is the responsibility of the government to extend protection to the rally,” he said. To a police suggestion that they could hold a convention at Mangaluru instead of the rally, Mr. Simha quipped who the police were to dictate the mode of holding protest.
The demand is to ban communal organisations against which police have not acted and if they continue not to act, communal strife in the region will continue, he said.
