Mumbai: After hate-filled slogans were reported at a Ram Navami procession in Andheri E, police registered an FIR against three persons on April 8 and served them notices. On Friday, an independent journalist who had tweeted videos of the procession took to X to protest being asked to take them down. On April 7, the procession was organised on Andheri-Kurla Road towards Marol Naka. The crowd was heard sloganeering just as the procession reached Airport Road Metro station. The scribe who witnessed the goings-on posted that the crowd was being incited to repeat provocative slogans aimed at the minorities.
“Every few minutes, a guy would galvanise the crowd with slogans about Afzal Khan and Aurangzeb….The police were present all along but in all the hours I spent, I saw no efforts to restrain,” the journalist had posted. On April 8, a day later, Sahar Police registered an offence under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for “use of loudspeakers and playing obscene songs on the street.”
Security had been heightened in several states for Navami processions, with thousands of police personnel deployed, drones and CCTV cameras monitoring celebrations to ensure peace in sensitive areas.
In the past week, commentators and activists have criticised the use of loud music and communal slogans at such processions, underscoring the contrast with the traditional methods of observing Navami through fasting and prayers.
In 2023, a riot had broken out in Malwani after processionists clashed with locals objecting to the use of a DJ to play loud music outside a mosque. FIRs were filed and 20 arrested. The procession was organised by the Bajrang Dal and the VHP with police permission. Observers have often questioned the wisdom of allowing such high-decibel processions through sensitive areas.TNN