The Coimbatore City Police on Sunday intervened and stopped CPI(M) polit bureau member G. Ramakrishnan from administering an oath at a multi-party event to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi after he recited that the father of the nation “was shot dead by Godse” and RSS “terrorists”.
The police argued that the organisers had not obtained permission for such an event and the references to Godse and the RSS could lead to “law and order issues”. Mr. Ramakrishnan was heard asking the police whether they were implying that Gandhi was not shot dead by Godse. “Trial was conducted and he [Godse] was hanged to death. I am speaking the truth,” he said, while those around him were heard questioning whether the police were equating the “RSS with a religion”.
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A senior police officer later said the organisers had given a photocopy of an application to the Rathinapuri police for conducting an event to pay homage to Gandhi. It did not mention Mr. Ramakrishnan’s participation or his administering an oath. “We are not giving permission for any public event in view of COVID-19. An organiser contacted us and said it would be a simple event where a photo of Gandhi would be garlanded. The organiser was asked to get a proper consent from the station concerned,” the officer said.
The organisers initially brought a flex board of Gandhi, captioned “Symbol of secularism who was assassinated by Hindu fanatics”, to Gandhipuram. The Kattoor inspector objected to this, stating that they had applied for permission to conduct the event to the Rathinapuri station. The organisers later installed the flex board at Sivananda Colony where the police asked them to remove the word, ‘Hindu’, which was masked with an adhesive tape.
“The police allowed them to go thus far, thinking that the event would be over with the garlanding of Gandhi’s photo. However, the pledge had words that might lead to law and order issues,” the officer said.
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Kovai Makkal Ottrumai Medai, which organised the event, said the banner had the words denoting that on the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, “who was murdered by Hindu religious fanatics”, we will work for unity and religious harmony. Since the police objected, the organiser agreed to remove the word ‘Hindu’. The police later removed the audio system and the vehicle from the venue. They were returned to the organisers after talks.
City Police Commissioner Pradip Kumar said he would check whether there was anything wrong with the police intervention.
CPI(M) State secretary K. Balakrishnan demanded an inquiry. “It is a wrong practice on the part of the police to interfere when an event was in progress. Why should the police be particular about suppressing the fact that Gandhi was killed by Godse? It is unacceptable to allow the mind of the police to be clouded by ‘saffronite’ thoughts. There are doubts whether these police officers would function impartially,” he said.
Mr. Balakrishnan said he would like to bring to the notice of the Coimbatore police Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s statement that Godse’s descendants had no place in India. “An inquiry should be ordered into the incident and action should be taken against the officers. The government should ensure that the official machinery follows the secular principles.”
