Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday called out the “double standard” of the judicial machinery in preventing the MVA announced bandh in protest against the Badlapur rape, while allowing the BJP strike against the West Bengal government in connection with the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital rape and murder incident.
Speaking to reporters, he said when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) parties called a bandh in Maharashtra over the Badlapur sexual assault case, they were stopped by the Bombay High Court.
“When we had given a call for bandh, we were stopped because (Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji is running the government here. Here, Amit Shah is running the government. The same incident of sexual assault took place here too,” he said.
Raut compared this to the situation in West Bengal, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called a 12-hour bandh in response to police action during the ‘Nabanna Abhijan’ rally on Tuesday against the brutal rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata.
“We were stopped. But it (Bengal Bandh) was not stopped as there is Mamata didi government in West Bengal or ‘anti-BJP government’. This is our justice system. Double standard,” he added.
While the Bombay High Court restrained MVA from calling a bandh in Maharashtra, the Calcutta High Court dismissed a petition seeking to declare the BJP’s bandh call illegal, allowing the strike to proceed.
The Calcutta High Court, in its ruling, dismissed the petition challenging the bandh, stating that the petitioner had provided false information about themselves in the PIL.
Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmoy Bhattacharyya also barred the petitioner from filing any further PILs.