Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 11, 2009
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/varun-rally-in-mothers-seat-cancelled-goes-to-ec/457329/0
Two days after an advisory panel rejected
the NSA charges levelled by the Mayawati government against him, the cancellation
of a rally Varun Gandhi was to hold on Sunday in his mother Maneka Gandhi's
constituency Aonla in Uttar Pradesh may blow up into another confrontation
between the two.
Varun was barred from holding the rally in
Faridpur by Sub-Divisional Magistrate Munish Sharma after reportedly considering
local intelligence reports. According to the district authorities, the reports
advised against allowing the rally in Faridpur, which witnessed communal tension
in March.
It was on grounds of his alleged anti-Muslim
speeches that the Mayawati government had slapped the NSA against Varun.
District Collector R Ramesh Kumar, who addressed
the media in Bareilly along with visiting Chief Election Commissioner Naveen
Chawla, denied that Varun was refused permission to hold the meeting in Faridpur.
He said the BJP candidate was asked to hold a meeting 5 km away as Faridpur
had witnessed communal violence ahead of Holi this year.
The district authorities say that the reported
remarks of the BJP's Pilibhit candidate that he favoured father Sanjay Gandhi's
controversial population control measures had sparked anger in a section of
the population. Incidentally, it was later clarified that Varun never said
he favoured forced sterilisation.
In his complaint to the Election Commission
against the cancellation of the rally, the 29-year-old leader accused the
authorities of taking an "arbitrary" decision on the basis of a
"false" press report. Varun said the permission for the rally had
been obtained five days back, and urged the EC to ensure that his and his
mother's "constitutional right" to "convey their message of
hope and change to their electorate not be arbitrarily and summarily prevented".
An angry Maneka too lashed out at the district
administration. "Varun has been holding meetings everywhere... Nothing
happened there. In Faridpur we were thinking we could unite the Hindus and
Muslims, but authorities cancelled the meeting and created a new situation,"
she said.
The BSP said that the state Government had
nothing to do with the cancellation of Varun's rally, and it was the district
administration's decision. He added that the state Government will not allow
anyone to take the law into their own hands, even if he belongs to "Gandhi
family or is a son of a king."
