Billboard asking for accountability threatens national integration in Yogi’s UP

The Allahabad police on Sunday evening registered a case against unidentified persons for “imputations and assertions prejudicial to national integration and statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will”, after billboards featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi were put up in the city on Saturday morning, The Telegraph reported.

What was written on the billboards that prompted the police to assume that it threatened national integration? The billboards contained cartoons that raised the issue of the LPG price hike, unemployment and farmers’ deaths.

In charge of the Katra outpost under Colonelganj police station, Harendra Singh told the Telegraph that cases were registered under sections 153B and 505 (2) of the IPC, and that the police were scrutinising CCTV footage to identify the people who put up the billboards. Vishwajeet Singh, the station house officer at Colonelganj PS, stated that Amit Saran, a BJP Yuva Morcha leader, filed a complaint following which the police were probing the matter.

The Telegraph quoted another Lucknow BJP leader as saying, “One thing is clear — the Opposition is disturbed with the popularity of Modi.”