Mumbai: Mumbai police kept strict vigil on the Friday evening lecture on “50 years of Naxalbari” discussing the 1967 peasants’ uprising in the West Bengal village of the same name that killed at least 11 farmers during police firing.
The Legal Rights Organisation (LRO) had written to Mumbai police, asking them not to allow the lecture to be held at Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh, where it has been conducted at least twice in the past. The police however said there were no grounds to stop the programme from taking place.
The lecture was delivered without event at the venue amid police presence. Speakers Vara Vara Rao and Tilak Dasgupta recollected the incident that took place in 1967 and the reasons that led to the killings.
The letter asking Mumbai police not to allow the lecture was sent to police headquarters, from where, it was forwarded to the office of deputy commissioner of police zone I. The Azad Maidan police is then said to have carried out threat perception as the venue comes under their jurisdiction. The decision to provide security to the function was taken, citing possibility of those opposing it creating a ruckus.
A senior Mumbai police officer said, “We have no reason to hold back the programme, however, citing those opposing it, we will provide security at the venue. There should be no threat to law and order.” Officials revealed that this was the ninth edition of the annual lecture which has been taking place annually for the past nine years. At least three of these lectures have been held at the same venue in Mumbai, the police said.
The speakers’ scripts and lectures however are under the police scanner. Sources said that the special branch of Mumbai police was part of the session and would take legal action in the event anything objectionable was expressed.
The Naxalbari uprising, an armed peasant revolt, took place in Naxalbari block of Siliguri subdivision in Darjeeling district, West Bengal. It was mainly led by tribals and the communist leaders of the “"Siliguri group”.
