While the Union government of India has extended its support for the France government in the fight against radical Islamist terrorism, ruling party in Maharashtra NCP is organising protests against France. After the French president Emmanuel Marcon announced a crackdown on radical Islam following a series of terrorist attacks, Muslims in several countries have launched an attack against him. The governments of Pakistan and Turkey has officially slammed France for action on jihadi ideologists.
Radical Islamist organisations in Indian too, like Raza Academy and AIMPLB, had launched protests against France, alleging Islamophobia, and called for boycott of French products. But in a shocking development, senior leaders of the NCP, which is part of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress ruling alliance in Maharashtra, have come out openly in protests against France.
NCP leader and minister in Maharashtra govt, Jitendra Awhad led such a protest in Mumbra in Mumbai. The protest was held at 2 PM on Saturday, and the banners put up ahead of it had said that it was being led by Dr. Jitendra Prasad, the Minister for Housing in the Maharashtra govt.
Several other NCP leaders have been named in the banner, and it said that it was organised by Ashraf Shanu Pathan, NCP leader and corporator of ward 32 in the Mumbra Thane Mahanagar Palika. In fact, Pathan had also posted an image of the same banner on Facebook account, with a photo of Marco with a footprint mark on it.
In the videos of the protest, NCP leaders and workers can be seen trampling on the photos of Marcon, and beating the photos with shoes. Talking to media, corporator Ashraf Shanu Pathan said that they are calling for boycott of French products, and they won’t insult of Prophet Muhammad. He said that they would not tolerate those who are supporting the makers of cartoons depicting the Prophet. The NCP leader asserted that he is even ready to give his life in this fight against the French govt.
Mumbra has seen large protests against France accusing the country of insulting Islam. Yesteday, photos of Emmanuel Marcon were pasted on several roads, on which people walked, a mark of disrespect in India. Raza Academy and other radical Muslim organisations had pasted the posters. The posters were however removed by police later.
Now it has revealed that not just organisations like Raza Academy, but a major political party like NCP is also leading the protests against France. Generally, all political parties extend support to the central govt in international issues, despite the opposition on domestic issues. But in this case, the Maharashtra ruling party NCP had decided to go against the stated position of India, and leading protests against Farnce.
Earlier, Congress MLA in Madhya Pradesh Arif Masood had also organised a protest upporting terrorism in the name of Islam that led to the beheading of Samuel Paty and others in France. The protest where thousands of Muslims participated was held in Bhopal.
