“Yeh jo kaali aur neeli patti baande huye hain inse keh do Pakistan chale jao! Khaoge yahan ka, gaoge kahin aur ka!” (The ones tying black and blue bands, tell them to go to Pakistan. You eat here but sing praises of another place.)
This is what a top police officer in Meerut was heard saying on 20 December. The video clip that was shot in Lisari Gate shows SP Akhilesh N Singh talking to a few protesters and asking locals to tell those protesting against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 to “go to Pakistan”.
The officer is seen saying, “Kahan jaoge? Is gali ko theek kar doonga! (Where will you go? I will fix this lane!)”
The officer then turns to three older Muslim persons and says, “Yeh gali mujhe yaad ho gayi hai. Aur jab mujhe yaad ho jaata hai toh mein naani tak pahunch jaata hun! (This lane is now familiar to me. And once I remember, I can even reach your grandmother.)”
“We were just offering our namaz,” one of them is seen replying. “Nahin woh to theek hai jo kaali patti aur neeli patti baandh rahe ho unko keh do Pakistan chale jaayein. (That's fine. But tell those who are wearing black and blue badges you people are wearing, tell them to go to Pakistan),” Singh told.
“Agar kuch ho gaya toh tum log keemat chukaoge. Har ek ek aadmi ko jail mein bandh karoonga! (If something happens, you guys will pay the price. Every man from each house will be arrested),” he added.
‘Boys Shouted Pakistan Zindabad’
Clarifying, SP City Akhilesh N Singh said, “The boys shouted 'Pakistan Zindabad' slogans. So I told them, if you like it better there (Pakistan) and have so much hatred towards India, then you should go to Pakistan.” He added that the cops are trying to identify these boys, reported ANI.
Prashant Kumar, ADG Meerut said that such a statement was made because the protesters were pelting stones and “situation was very, very tense [...] despite appeals by religious leaders.”
“If the situation was normal, then choice of words could have been better, but that day the situation was extremely volatile, our officers showed a lot of restraint, there was no firing by police,” he told ANI.
Kumar also said that the video was part of a conspiracy as it was being circulated a week after the incident, when the situation was peaceful in the area, PTI reported.
‘Constitution Does Not Allow This Language’
Priyanka Gandhi, General Secretary of the Indian National Congress tweeted strongly condemning the officer’s statement.
“The Constitution of India does not allow the use of this language with any citizen, and when you are an officer in important position, then the responsibility increases. BJP has so much communal poison in the institutions that today the officers have no respect for swearing the constitution,” she tweeted.
Samajwadi Party MLA Rafiq Ansari also hit out at the top officer, saying he should exercise restraint and not make unconstitutional remarks. The people he was talking about were also residents of India, he said, according to PTI.
UP Police Blocks Accounts Condemning the Cop’s Act
Several people took to Twitter to condemn the UP police for this statement.
“Until now #TrollArmy was saying: go to Pakistan. But now a UP police officer is saying: go to Pakistan. There is anarchy, hooliganism and shamelessness happening in the name of democracy,” tweeted director Vinod Kapri.
Many others tweeted that when they tagged the UP police, their accounts were blocked.
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