Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members took out a protest in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur city, demanding that Jinnah Tower be renamed as APJ Abdul Kalam Tower. A few BJP cadres, including national secretary Sunil Deodhar, were detained by the police.
BJP leaders on Tuesday, May 24, marched towards the Jinnah Tower in Guntur city, demanding that the tower be renamed APJ Abdul Kalam Tower.
Police, however, stopped the march and detained BJP workers, including national secretaries Sunil Deodhar and Satya Kumar.
Deodhar alleged police brutality and stated that the ‘autocratic’ YS Jagan-led government was involved in ‘minority appeasement’. He added that the YS Jagan-led government has shown their real colour to suppress voices.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP, GVL Narasimha Rao, condemned the police action and tweeted “Wonder if we are in AP or Pakistan.”
Earlier, in February, the tower was painted in the Indian tricolour and the national flag was unfurled after a mont-long showdown between the BJP and the ruling YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh.
Now, the BJP are demanding that Jinnah Tower be renamed as APJ Abdul Kalam Tower.
Jinnah Tower is a pre-independence era landmark monument in Guntur located at Mahatma Gandhi Road in the city. It was built in 1940 remembering the visit of Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah.
