Ranchi/Jamshedpur: Ruling JMM activists showed black flags twice to Union Steel and Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar during his visit to Jharkhand on Saturday, two days after Chief Minister Hemant Soren was jeered by BJP men in the presence of Prime Minister at a function in Ranchi.
Tomar was first shown black flags when his convoy was passing through Hinoo Chowk near the Ranchi airport and then outside the Sonari Aerodrum in Jamshedpur, police said. Activists of BJP and JMM also clashed at Hinoo Chowk during the incident leaving some of them with minor injuries, police said.
There was tension at Sonari as a number of JMM and BJP workers assembled there to protest and to welcome the minister respectively and the East Singhbhum district administration made an elaborate security arrangement.
However, many JMM activists had left the place before arrival of Tomar who was about an hour behind schedule, defusing the tension to a great extent. The incident came against the background of BJP activists being among those who hooted Chief Minister Hemant Soren when he was speaking in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a function in Ranchi’s Dhurwa area on Thursday.
JMM had issued a statement later that day that its activists would protest visits of any central minister to Jharkhand if a public apology was not tendered by the Prime Minister following the “unseemly” act by BJP activists during the chief minister’s speech. Meanwhile, JMM’s East Singhbhum district president Ramesh Hansdah said the party’s agitation would continue till Modi tenders a public apology. (PTI) Heckling “pre-planned”, says Maha CM Chavan
Mumbai, Aug 23 (PTI) Maintaining his being heckled at an event in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “pre-planned at a high level”, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today said he will not attend such functions in future till he got an assurance that incidents like those will not recur. “All this would not have happened unless decided at a high level. He (Modi) will have to show how to behave with Chief Ministers at such events where CM is from opposition party. Before I attend such functions, we should get an assurance at the highest level that there won’t be a recurrence,” Chavan said. Chavan was booed at a function at Solapur last Saturday where he had to stop his speech midway amid repeated chants of “Modi! Modi!”. He had refused to attend a function in Nagpur with Modi on Thursday where the Prime Minister launched several infrastructue projects including a metro rail for the state’s second capital. “I did not go to Nagpur because of the planned manner in which speeches of chief ministers were disrupted (at PM’s functions). Had it been a one-off incident, I would have understood. But the same thing was done in case of Haryana and Jharkhand chief ministers,” he said. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar also criticised the manner in which Chavan’s speech was disrupted at Solapur by alleged Modi supporters. “Now we are seeing a new trend. The PM goes to public functions in various states and some people from the crowd get up and ask the CM to stop his speech. Should such things happen?” Pawar said. PT