RSS cancels Tamil Nadu march following restrictions imposed by High Court

• ‘Route marches happen in the open in Kashmir, West Bengal, Kerala & other places. We are not holding our Tamil Nadu route marches on November 6th. We will appeal’
• It is believed that through the march, RSS is trying to pave way for the BJP in Tamil Nadu politics.
• Coimbatore had recently witnessed a car explosion a day before Diwali in which one man, Jameesha Mubin, was killed.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has cancelled its proposed road march across Tamil Nadu tomorrow after the Madras High Court permitted it to hold them only in compounded premises like a ground or a stadium. The Hindu rightwing outfit said that the “order is unacceptable”.

The Madras High Court on Friday directed the Tamil Nadu police to permit the RSS to take out its “route marches” and hold public meetings at 44 places in the state on November 6. Justice G K Ilanthiraiyan gave the direction, after pulling up the police department for refusing permission for the rally at 47 places in the state, relying wholly on the intelligence report, which restricted its findings with regard to very few places in Tamil Nadu.

It is believed that through the march, RSS is trying to pave way for the BJP in Tamil Nadu politics.

The state government had earlier permitted the march in only three of the 50 places the right-wing outfit had sought permission for. The RSS, the court ruled, should conduct the march peacefully or face consequences, reported NDTV.

A statement from the RSS states: “Route marches happen in the open in Kashmir, West Bengal, Kerala & other places. We are not holding our Tamil Nadu route marches on November 6th. We will appeal.”

The court had also denied permission for the march in six communally sensitive places, including Coimbatore, Pollachi, and Nagercoil, following intelligence inputs.

The court said that it found nothing adverse in the reports by intelligence agencies and allowed the RSS, the ideological parent of the BJP, to seek permission for the march in even the six other locations after two months, as per the NDTV report.

Coimbatore had recently witnessed a car explosion a day before Diwali in which one man, Jameesha Mubin, was killed. The case is being probed by the National Investigation Agency, amid fears that Mubin had plans to wreak major damage, as per media reports.

It is to be noted that the state government had earlier denied permission to another rally by RSS on October 2. The RSS had moved a contempt plea. The state’s Director General of Police (DGP) in a circular to Superintendents of Police (SP) and Police Commissioners asked them to grant permission subject to local law and order situations.

The state had cited law and order concerns then, in the aftermath of the ban on the Popular Front of India.