Tushar, Teesta Stopped From Reaching August Kranti Maidan

On Wednesday, Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, claimed that police detained him as he was going to Mumbai’s iconic August Kranti Maidan to commemorate Quit India Day.

According to a police official, Tushar Gandhi — when he came out of his suburban Santacruz residence — was told that he cannot go to participate in a rally the permission for which had been denied.

Tushar Gandhi tweeted, “For the first time in history of Independent India I have been detained at Santa Cruz Police Station as I left home to commemorate 9th August Quit India Day. I am proud My Great Grandparents Bapu and Ba had also been arrested by the British Police on the historic date.”

However, later a police official said that Tushar did reach the Maidan. He was expected to take part in a rally which was scheduled to be held from Girgaon Chowpatty to August Kranti Maidan.

The official said that as Tushar attempted to leave his residence at around 7:45 am, a team of Santacruz police personnel, which was waiting outside his building, informed him that due to a law and order issue, permission for the rally had been denied to him and he cannot participate in it.

Tushar Gandhi said that he then returned to his residence. However, the police allowed Tushar Gandhi to visit the August Kranti Maidan later and offer tributes.

In a later tweet, Tushar Gandhi said, “Fear in our society is so palpable. I got Into a Riksha at Santa Cruz Police Station after I was allowed to go. When we reached Bandra I hailed an old Muslim taxi driver to take me to August Kranti Maidan, He saw the police car & panicked told me ‘Saab mujhe nahi fasna’.”

Meanwhile, noted freedom fighter G.G. Parikh, civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad and around 50 more activists, who were supposed to participate in the ‘Shanti March’ to be held from Girgaon Chowpatty to the August Kranti Maidan, were detained by Mumbai Police.

Teesta Setalvad tweeted a statement titled ‘Unprecedented Draconian Crackdown on Activists on 9th August Quit India Day’, in which she mentioned in detail how they were detained from reaching the August Kranti Maidan for the first time in the history of this day, since its commemoration began in the year 1943. Before this, Setalvad had tweeted photographs of some police personnel outside her residence in the morning.

In related news, a police official said that permission to hold the rally had been denied and a written communication about the same was sent to the organisers concerned. The official added that the rally was not allowed to take place due to law and order and security-related issues; however, the activists were asked to attend the event to pay tributes at the August Kranti Maidan, if they so wished.

It was reported that later, Teesta Setalvad reached the Maidan to offer her tributes and Parikh paid tributes at the statue of Lokmanya Tilak at Girgaon and left from there.

Earlier on Wednesday morning, according to a police officer, the D.B. Marg police in south Mumbai had detained over 20 activists who had gathered to participate in the rally near Girgaon Chowpatty. All the activists were released later on, he added.

The Quit India movement is considered to be a major milestone in the history of India’s struggle for independence from the rule of the British government. On Wednesday, people visited the August Kranti Maidan — the ground from where Mahatma Gandhi had given the clarion call of ‘do-or-die’ for independence — and offered floral tributes at the Gandhi Smruti Stambh to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the Quit India Movement.

The movement was launched in August 1942 at Mumbai’s Gowalia Tank, which later came to be known as August Kranti Maidan on account of its association with the historic occasion.