Ink was thrown at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal while he was addressing a gathering about the success of odd-even road rationing scheme at Delhi’s Chhatrasal Stadium. He had just started his speech to the 5,000-strong audience; a woman in her early 30s walked towards the dais and threw ink, some papers and a CD towards him. She was immediately detained by the police. So far, nobody knows what those papers and CD were for. However, it looked like a planned vendetta. The woman has been identified as Bhavna Arora, who belongs to the “Aam Aadmi Sena” a splinter group of Aam Aadmi Party formed by party rebels. This group is the brain child of Bhushans, Yadavs and all those who were shown the door by AAP and silently rendering support to BJP. This new group was never in much limelight or people talked about. This attempt could be the reason for grabbing attention and increasing the goodwill of BJP leaders. May be this group is created for such activities, without holding the BJP responsible for any act. Whatsoever, these attacks needs to be stopped. Nowadays, we boast about tolerance but the fact is none of us are tolerant towards each other.
Big question remains here is, what Delhi police were doing? How can there be security lapse? How could a girl get so closer to CM? Why she was not checked before entering in the stadium? What if she would have carried some acid instead of ink? And who must have managed to send that girl so close to Kejriwal? Well, for completing the formalities, police have sought a magistrate’s permission to arrest Ms. Arora, since women can’t be arrested after sunset without his consent. A case has been registered. Many see it as BJP conspiracy, they think that the saffron party want to take advantage of such a situation and attack Kejriwal and the entire Cabinet. They may also kill people because they cannot stand the success of the odd-even scheme and AAP’s popularity among the masses. Police is a part of the conspiracy. Anyway, this is not the first time such incidence has occurred.
Right wing supporters and its leaders have gone berserk; they have crossed all the boundary of decency. Inking the faces of people has become most wanted news gimmick for them, but that does not work always. Recently, the activist Mallikarjun Bhaikatti, through an RTI query, revealed that around 14,000 square feet illegal construction was carried out in a four-storeyed building and boy’s hostel on the Latur-Nanded road. Bhaikatti had addressed a press conference to “expose” the illegal construction. The Sena workers brought Bhaikatti to the college premises when around 4,000 students were present and assaulted him with an iron rod, before blackening his face. The injured RTI activist was admitted to a hospital in Latur.
In the same month, Sena workers had blackened the face of Sudheendra Kulkarni, chairman of the Observer Research Foundation, in an ink attack ahead of the launch of ‘Neither a Hawk Nor a Dove: An Insider’s Account of Pakistan’s Foreign Relations’ authored by former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri. The Sena was opposed to a Pakistani politician coming to India and launching a book. Under pressure from the Shiv Sena, a concert by Ghulam Ali was also cancelled in the city. The Sena’s actions have been criticised by many social think tanks and even common public.
The Rajasthan unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) issued a notice to MLA Kanwar Lal Meena to explain his role in the attack on NGO workers affiliated to organisations of activists Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey in Jhalawar, but then after that notice he was allowed to work.
In October last year, Hindu Sena activists came rampaging inside the Press Club of India premises in New Delhi and attacked Independent Jammu and Kashmir MLA Engineer Rashid by smearing his face with black paint and ink. They were protesting against the beef party he had hosted in Srinagar. Earlier that month, Rashid had also been beaten up by BJP MLAs in J&K Assembly for hosting a beef party in the MLA hostel. The ink-smearing incident had taken place time and again. Either doctor’s faces were blackened or some politicians or whistle-blowers, this has rapid since BJP came to power.
If we look little back, in 2013, a man running a non-governmental organisation threw black ink on Baba Ramdev during a press conference at the Constitution Club in Delhi. The accused was later arrested. Kamran Siddiqui (40), running Real Cause, in Okhla, had sought Ramdev’s opinion on the 2008 Batla House encounter in which suspects of the Delhi serial blasts were killed. The yoga guru refused to take the question and soon afterwards Kamran allegedly hurled the ink he carried in a small plastic bottle. Ramdev had called the press meet to announce his plans to campaign in the Assembly elections on issues such as black money and corruption. Immediately after the attack, Ramdev’s supporters caught hold of Kamran and beat him up before handing him over to the police. His shirt was torn and he was seen bleeding from the lips. The ink smeared Ramdev’s face and stained only a bit of his clothing.
