Aires Rodrigues, an advocate and resident of Goa, has filed a complaint with the ministry of civil aviation against the illegal and unauthorised reception organised by the BJP for party president Amit Shah at the Dabolim airport in Goa. The gathering, which was addressed by Shah, was also attended by chief minister Manohar Parrikar.
BJP leaders from Goa had received Shah at the airport on Saturday and then escorted him to a makeshift podium where he addressed the gathering for 15 minutes before the arrangements were packed up. BJP sources were quoted by the Indian Express as saying that this was Shah's first public address following the GST launch and, therefore, "an immediate plan was made... This had to be an iconic setting."
In his letter to the secretary of ministry of civil aviation, chief secretary of Goa and director general of police, Rodrigues sought that the gathering should be treated as an "unlawful assembly" and a FIR should be filed against the organisers of the event as well as Shah and the other dignitaries present at the reception.
"They cannot now claim to be ignorant of the legal provisions," Rodrigues said in his complaint claiming that "a public meeting was organised in the high-security precincts of an airport" for the "first time in the history of the country." He also alleged that Shah "was allowed to address party workers within the airport precincts" in "total violation of law."
"Shah had arrived at 11.15 am and addressed the public meeting with the airport and police officials conveniently looking the other way while the law was being blatantly breached," Rodrigues alleged in his letter claiming that the reception was held in "complete and gross abuse of power."
The high court advocate also claimed that the reception also caused inconvenience to the travellers; "... people who were arriving at or departing from the airport were restrained by the blockage due to the public meeting," Rodrigues said.
He also added that the Goa airport works within the naval base and is a defence establishment. Therefore, no public meeting should have been held there in the first place and that the reception was "a violation of the other enactments covering vital installations like airports," he said.
The advocate sought an "immediate inquiry to ascertain which officers were responsible in allowing this illegal public meeting." He added: "Stringent action in accordance with the law would have to be taken against the concerned officers for having acted as cronies of a political party."
BJP denies allegations
The BJP has, however, denied all the allegations saying that the event was held outside the airport and that all the necessary permissions were taken beforehand.
Dabolim MLA Mauvin Godinho told PTI: "The function was held only for seven minutes and no one was put to inconvenience." He added that those who attended the function had parked their vehicles far away so as not to cause any inconvenience to the general public.
