Retired Bombay High Court judge B.G. Kolse-Patil, who was among the chief organisers of the controversial ‘Elgaar Parishad’ in December 2017, has submitted an application to the Pune police to hold a similar event on December 31, 2020.
In his application submitted to the Swargate Police Station, Mr. Kolse-Patil has sought permission to hold this new ‘Elgaar Parishad’ at the city’s Ganesh Kala Krida Manch.
“We expect 700-800 people to attend including speakers. We have already booked the premises and have applied permission to local police authorities. They said they would be forwarding it to their superiors,” said Justice (Retd.) Kolse-Patil.
Speaking to The Hindu , he further said that if the State Home Department denied permission, he would seek recourse to the Bombay High Court for permission and was even willing to petition before the Supreme Court to hold the event.
Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik, while remaining non-committal on permission being granted to Mr. Kolse-Patil’s event, said that lockdown regulations must be strictly adhered to at all costs, while pointing out that all festivities across Maharashtra had been cancelled owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“B.G. Kolse-Patil has been a former High Court judge and he knows the law. While there is no restriction on anyone’s freedom of speech and the right to hold events, let me point out that despite the unlock phase, there is a restriction on political gatherings to prevent the spread of the contagion. The State Home Department will take a call on this and only then decide on whether or not to give the green signal,” Mr. Malik said.
He further added that in the last ten months since the pandemic erupted in the State, Maharashtra’s public had followed all lockdown regulations — be it for festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi or Eid or Ambedkar Jayanti.
Expressing strong reservations about Mr. Kolse-Patil’s event, Shambhuraj Desai, Minister of State for Home (Rural), said that any large gathering during the time of a pandemic was not salutary from the health point of view. “Everyone will have to follow rules in this case and strictly adhere to COVID-19 regulations laid down by the State government. As to the question of giving permission or not, it will be decided at an appropriate time by the State government,” he said.
More than 250 progressive social outfits, including several Left-leaning and Ambedkarite groups across Maharashtra, as well as people like Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani, Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangha chief Prakash Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Umar Khalid, among others, had participated in the ‘Elgaar Parishad’ that was held on December 31, 2017 in Pune’s Shaniwar Wada.
In the aftermath of the Bhima-Koregaon riots which broke out the next day (January 1, 2018), the Pune city police, in its controversial probe, had stated that the ‘Elgaar Parishad’ had triggered the Bhima-Koregaon clashes — a theory vehemently denied by several other activists and Justices (Retd.) P.B. Sawant and Mr. Kolse-Patil.
