Farmers Movement Archive

Shaheen to Singhu, dissent at the gates

Of the year began with Shaheen Bagh protesters refusing to move till Corona intervened, it is ending with a virtual blockade of Delhi. Caravans of thousands of farmers are sitting at major border points to protest against the three farming laws. Their unions were demanding space at Jantar Mantar or Ramlila Maidan but the administration offered them the Burari grounds on the outskirts. They chose to impose a blockade rather than be grounded far away from the seat of power which, they felt, would put little pressure on the Government. Restrictions on the original protest site at Boat Club, near the India Gate lawns, had been imposed after another massive farmer protest in October 1988 when, led by Mahendra Singh Tikait, they stationed themselves on the lawns along the Rajpath. Shaken by the agitation, the government declared Boat Club out of bounds and designated Jantar Mantar, 2 km away, as the venue for such protests. The larger rallies were held at Ramlila Maidan. In October 2017, NGT imposed a total ban on all protests at Jantar Mantar, and once again the city found itself looking for a venue to express democratic dissent. The NGT-designated site of Ramlila Maidan witnessed just 10 protest rallies in the first six months, a sharp fall from 24,000 annual requests for protests at the Parliament Street police station near Jantar Mantar. The protesters cited the distance from Parliament and the apprehension of “not being heard” as the key reasons for staying away. Reversing the NGT order in 2018 while hearing the plea of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Supreme Court re-opened the protest site aat Jantar Mantar and Boat Club. The apex court observed that there was a need to strike a balance between the right to protest and right of citizens to live peacefully. However, protests have not returned to these sites on the same scale. However, it has proved to be difficult to keep the protesters off the roads, as witnessed during the CAA-NRC stir, disabled candidates occupying the Mandi house roundabout for several days or others trying to catch attention of the national media by occupying Shaheedi Park near Feroz Shah Kotla. The CAA protests witnessed large-scale restrictions, repeated invocation of Section 144, frequent closure of metro stations and even disruptions in mobile networks. Supreme Court said in its order on Shaheen Bagh in October this year that public places cannot be occupied indefinitely. “Democracy and dissent go hand in hand, but then the demonstrations expressing dissent have to be in designated places alone. The present case…was blockage of a public way which caused grave inconvenience to commuters. We cannot accept the plea of the applicants that an indeterminable number of people can assemble whenever they choose to protest,” the bench held. But that’s exactly what’s happening on the highways to Delhi now. The right to dissent and protest continued to be contested till the end of pandemic-stricken 2020. With the Disaster Management Act in force, all kinds of protests were disallowed all through the year. However, mayors and BJP councillors remained stationed outside the CM’s house demanding release of pending dues, with the cops looking the other way, till the Delhi high court intervened on a plea from residents. The police were, meanwhile, denying AAP MLAs the same right to sit outside the home minister’s residence, citing the same Act, giving a new dimension to the controversy over right to protest.

The Times of India

2020-12-30

Delhi