Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan declared that the BJP would launch a "massive people's movement" after party activists staging a protest in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Rajgarh district on Sunday were allegedly assaulted by officials.
Chouhan told ANI that the BJP would register an FIR against Rajgarh Collector Nidhi Nivedita over the incident in Rajgarh. “... If FIR is not registered, we will go to court,” Chouhan declared. Chouhan described the incident in Rajgarh as “the final nail in the coffin of Congress government” in Madhya Pradesh.
Chouhan described the alleged assault on the protesters in Rajgarh as a “black day for democracy”. “The collector slapped people who were chanting Bharat Mata ki jai and holding tricolour in their hands; this is too much... did (Chief Minister) Kamal Nath order collector to do this?”
"Collector madam, which law book you have read empowers you to beat up and drag citizens protesting peacefully?" Chouhan asked in a tweet.
He further tweeted that the Congress-led government should hear it clear and loud that "Hitlerism with people of MP would not be tolerated at any cost".
On Sunday, Nivedita and additional collector Priya Verma confronted a group of protesters who defied prohibitory orders in Biaora town to hold a rally in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Video clips of the rally, organised by the BJP, have gone viral. Prohibitory orders were imposed in Rajgarh since Saturday night and pleas to the BJP to call off the protest in support of the Citizenship Act fell on deaf ears.
The video clips purportedly show Nivedita slapping a man and Verma taking on some men who were part of the crowd.
Verma told PTI on Sunday night that some men from the crowd misbehaved with her and Nivedita. She denied that they resorted to high-handed behaviour, as alleged by the BJP.
"Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC are in place in the district. While we were doing our duty, a crowd came from the other side and misbehaved with us," she said. Verma said a man pulled her hair from the back while another kicked her in the waist.
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"All that (she taking on some men) happened after it. Despite our requests to the protesters to sit down, they did not pay any heed," Verma alleged.
Verma denied that police resorted to cane charge to disperse the crowd.
"We have lodged a complaint with the police against two men for misbehaving with us. One of them has been identified as Singh while another is yet to be identified, but we have his picture," she said.
