LUCKNOW: Bhim Army activists staged a massive protest in Bareilly on Thursday. Their anger was triggered by the presence of a picture of Lord Hanuman at the City Magistrate’s office instead of a photograph of Dr BR Ambedkar. The protestors asserted that the absence of Dr Ambedkar’s image amounted to an insult to the ‘Constitution Maker’ and a violation of protocol.Activists had visited the Collectorate to seek permission for an upcoming event led by MP Chandrashekhar of the Azad Samaj Party (ASP) on August 17. Instead of Dr Ambedkar’s photo, they found Lord Hanuman’s displayed prominently. Moreover, they were not granted the permission for the event. This prompted ASP members to initiate an immediate confrontation with City Magistrate Alankar Agnihotri.The protestors alleged that the magistrate went on to declare that he believed in Lord Hanuman and not in Ambedkar—a statement they found deeply offensive.They claimed the magistrate, from a Brahmin background, used his office as a private space to display his beliefs while ignoring constitutional norms.According to Sunil Gautam, state general secretary of the Azad Samaj Party, government offices are legally required to display images of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Ambedkar. He accused Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of appointing officials who lacked respect for the constitutional figures. The Bhim Army’s intellectual conference, scheduled for August 17, had its permission abruptly withdrawn. Activists decried this as a calculated move to derail their event. Attempts to get comments from the magistrate went in vain.
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