Several BJP members were detained by the police after they protested against the Jinnah Tower, demanding that it should be renamed.
Demanding the renaming of a tower in Andhra Pradesh, several members of the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) staged a protest and were later detained by the authorities on Tuesday. Among those who were taken into police custody was BJP national secretary Sunil Deodhar.
Members of the BJP were taken into police custody when they sought to march to the Jinnah Tower Centre in Guntur on Tuesday evening demanding that it be renamed after former President A P J Abdul Kalam, as per PTI reports.
After a meeting of the party's youth wing BJYM, the BJP leaders and workers tried to take out a protest march to Jinnah Tower in order to urge the government to rename the site but police foiled it and detained them.
For the past few months, the BJP and other Hindu organisations have been demanding that the historic Jinnah Tower be renamed but the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government paid no heed. Finally, Deodhar decided to lead the protest in Andhra Pradesh for the renaming of the tower on Tuesday.
The BJP demanded that the Jinnah Tower be renamed APJ Abdul Kalam Tower. BJP Rajya Sabha member G V L Narasimha Rao condemned the high-handed behaviour of the police against his party leaders and their detention. In a tweet, he wondered "if we are in AP or Pakistan".
State BJP president Somu Veerraju said not only their party but also the people demanded that the tower be renamed.
He said there was widespread support for the demand to remove Jinnah's name and the tower be renamed after Abdul Kalam. "The state government cannot adopt an oppressive stance over our demand," Veerraju added, as per PTI reports.
The BJP has been demanding the renaming of several areas across the country, most notably, the renaming of 40 villages in Delhi with Mughal-era names to names of freedom fighters, martyrs, and IB staffer Ankit Sharma and constable Ratan Lal, who were killed in the 2020 Delhi riots.
(With PTI inputs)
READ | Andhra Pradesh minister P Viswarup's house set on fire amid violence over renaming of district
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 "‘Is this Andhra Pradesh or Pakistan?’: BJP stages protest for renaming Jinnah Tower after APJ Abdul Kalam")
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