Congress leaders protest against govt school students wearing Savarkar T-shirts, booked

The FIR lodged on the basis of a complaint filed by school Principal Kalpesh Chauhan stated that the Congress leaders forced students and teachers to stop their march around 11 am when the Tiranga Yatra and Congress leaders’ Gujarat Nyaya Yatra crossed paths.

The police said the Congress leaders shot videos of the students wearing saffron-coloured T-shirts and circulated the same on social media.

The FIR quoted Chauhan as saying that Desai told them that “it was not fair to ask students to wear T-shirts with photo of RSS leader Veer Savarkar”.

“Don’t you feel ashamed to ask students to wear T-shirts of the very Veer Savarkar who was part of the conspiracy to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi? Will you ask students to wear T-shirts of Nathuram Godse or some Rangabilla Dawood if I were to give you them tomorrow? Don’t demean independence by asking them to put on Veer Savarkar T-shirts,” Desai is reported to have told the principal.

The Congress march met the Tiranga Yatra while party leaders were marching on foot towards Sayla from Chotila town.

In his complaint, Chauhan said that some Congress leaders asked him and the teachers to direct the students to remove their T-shirts. Describing Savarkar and Azad as freedom fighters, the principal the T-shirts had been gifted to the school by the Indumati Vasantalal Charitable Trust, Mumbai.

“Laljibhai knows it well that such utterances can insult various sections of the society and freedom fighters,” Chauhan said in his complaint.

The five were booked under sections 197(1)(c) (promoting enmity between two communities) 197(1) (d) (make or publish false or misleading information, jeopardising the sovereignty, unity and integrity or security of India) 126(2) (wrongful restraint) 189(2) (unlawful assembly) 221 (voluntarily obstructing public servant from discharging his duties), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 353(2) (make, publishes or circulate any statement or report containing false information, rumour or alarming news, including through electronic means, with intent to create or promote, or which is likely to create or promote feelings of enmity, hatred or ill will between different groups) of the Bharatiya Nayaya Sanhita.

Congress had started its fortnight-long Nyaya Yatra from Morbi on August 9 to demand justice for those killed in bridge collapse in Morbi, TRP Game Zone fire in Rajkot, Harni boat tragedy in Vadodara and Takshashila complex fire in Surat. The Yatra is scheduled to conclude in Gandhinagar on August 23 after passing through Rajkot, Surendranagar and Ahmedabad districts.