A recent drive undertaken by the Pune unit of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) against alleged illegal Bangladeshi immigrants has drawn heavy flak, with a number of organisations demanding a police case be filed against MNS chief Raj Thackeray for his “irresponsible” and “socially divisive” statements which provoked his party workers to commit such actions.
On Tuesday, the Sahakarnagar police lodged an FIR against some MNS activists after their overzealous drive backfired. They claimed to have nabbed an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant, who turned out to be from West Bengal instead.
The FIR, lodged under Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 and 149 (pertaining to rioting), 448 (trespassing), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 37(1) of the Maharashtra Police Act, 1951, was based on a complaint by Roshan Shaikh, who is from West Bengal and has been earning a living in Pune for nearly two decades.
According to the complaint, MNS office-bearers, led by the party’s city president Ajay Shinde, stormed into Gulmohor Apartment in Dhankawadi on February 22 and accused Mr. Shaikh and two others, also from West Bengal, of being illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. They remained unmoved despite the three men producing papers which showed they were from West Bengal.
The MNS members took Mr. Shaikh and the others to Sahakarnagar police station, where they were detained till the evening and were finally permitted to leave after the police confirmed their credentials.
Satish Gaikwad of the Republican Party of India (I), who, along with lawyer Tosif Shaikh, helped the victim register the complaint, said, “MNS workers are trespassing houses of innocent people and are targeting the minority community in Maharashtra in the name of evicting Bangladeshis and Pakistanis. People are being harassed with demands of proof of citizenship.”
He said the innocent men had to endure the ordeal despite being Indian citizens.
Advocate Shaikh said the MNS’s actions were creating fear in the minds of innocent citizens, and demanded that Mr. Thackeray be made party in the FIR and his statements be thoroughly scrutinised by the police. “The MNS’s vigilantism is setting a dangerous precedent and poses a threat to public tranquillity and peace. It is ultimately the party chief who is responsible for such drives,” he said.
Along with the demand to rename Aurangabad to ‘Sambhajinagar’, the issue of illegal migrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh is high on the MNS’s agenda in the run-up to the election to the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation to be held in April. Posters exhorting people to turn in illegal immigrants and claim ₹5,000 from the MNS have already mushroomed in Aurangabad.
Anjum Inamdar, founder of the Mulnivasi Muslim Manch, demanded that the police investigate Mr. Thackeray and lodge an FIR against him. “Mr. Thackeray’s speeches, which are calculated to spark social discord, have resulted in MNS workers conducting such drives. We demand that this self-proclaimed vigilantism be checked and Mr. Thackeray be restrained from making such irresponsible statements,” he said.
Condemning the MNS’s actions, former Bombay High Court judge B.G. Kolse-Patil said every citizen has the right to make his living in any State he or she pleases. “The MNS’s drive against illegal immigrants smacks of crass political opportunism. How can they take the law into their own hands and interrogate whoever they please?” he said.
Mr. Shinde, meanwhile, claimed that the MNS had undertaken the drive with the help of the police — a claim which is now being investigated by the Sahakarnagar police.
Meanwhile, city Congress leaders said that while illegal migrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh must be evicted, the MNS ought to have been more prudent in their drive. “There is every possibility that senior citizens may be harassed during the course of such actions,” said Pune City Congress general secretary Ramesh Iyer.