A 'beef party' and a bandh greeted BJP president Amit Shah who visited the state today as part of his north-east tour seeking to strengthen party base and urging workers to make public the alleged corruption by ruling Congress party in Meghalaya.
While the beef party was organised by the Thma U Rangli Juki (TUR), a pressure group, the bandh was imposed by the proscribed militant group, the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council.
Leaders of the TUR and the Hynniewtrep National People's Front (HNPF), Khasi National Union (KNU) organised the beef party near the party's office in the city as the BJP president arrived to address party workers and to hold meeting with regional political parties.
Security personnel were seen having a tough time trying to stop the members of the NGOs who attempted to take out a protest march to the state's Conventional Hall, where Shah was convening a party meeting.
The activists had intended to hold a beef party in front of the convention hall as a mark of protest against BJP promotion of ban on beef but for the timely intervention of the administration.
Speaking on the sideline of the protest, TUR leader Angela Rngad said, "We are here to protest the coming of Amit Shah to our peaceful and loving town as he symbolises the BJP and all of their anti-people policies is something which we will not tolerate."
Terming the BJP and its functionaries as "ambassadors of hate", Rngad also said, "the protest is also to show that we are against all of their hate campaigns whether it is their 'Ghar Wapsi' and other policies like the grabbing of farmers land, 'Make in India' campaign, which intends to make all of us slaves.
