Tanvi 🐳

“People destroying our nation’s peace” is a funny way to describe ordinary citizens asking for accountability. Also, 1,000 is not some threshold beyond which a protest suddenly becomes illegitimate. It is the cap for a designated space like Jantar Mantar. If the expected turnout is larger and authorities anticipate public inconvenience, the solution is to redirect the protest to a larger designated space like Ramlila Maidan (according to Supreme Court’s 2018 judgement passed during MKSS) and not treat the protesters themselves as the inconvenience. Neither allowance for 1000 people nor redirection was done to manage this despite seeking permission. Brute force was used preemptively. In this case, deploying thousands of police personnel, cancelling public transport and restricting people’s movement is what created the public inconvenience. Dissent is a right. Peace does not mean silence, and “nationwide peace” cannot mean the absence of people asking uncomfortable questions. Protest is an inconvenient form of dissent for protestors and in most cases, the last resort. No one likes getting detained, get their clothes torn and beaten up. They still show up despite having these dangers to voice their opinions. Funny how we don’t raise our voices as much when crime against women, party led goons cause breach of nationwide peace.