Ever since Opposition parties, student unions and the Cockroach Janata Party announced protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the ruling dispensation responded by clamping down in an effort to quell the protests even before they could start. Large forces, even more than those deployed in Kargil, were flown into the streets of Delhi. Multi-layer barricades were installed along roads leading up to Jantar Mantar and, to top it all, the Delhi Police announced that there would be no “permission” granted for the protests and went around urging people not to participate in the protests.
If the people of India ever needed a reminder that they still live under colonial-era legislation, the events of this week offered the most stark example of one. A protest is the most basic of democratic rights and one that is quite clearly enshrined in the Constitution via article 19(1)(b) which has enshrined the right to assemble peaceably and without arms, including public meetings and demonstrations.
It is the clearest evidence if one ever needed proof that no law, much less any executive order issued by any authority, can override the right enshrined in the Constitution. No doubt the rights enshrined in the Constitution are subject to ‘reasonable restrictions’, but a restriction doesn’t mean taking a right away entirely.
None of that seems to apply to the government of the day, which has been using the machinery at its disposal to impose emergency-like restrictions on civil liberties that mirror similar restrictions issued during colonial rule. Besides political leaders, journalists, lawyers and even bystanders have been indiscriminately detained, manhandled, bundled off into buses simply because they have been exercising a legitimate democratic and constitutional right.
The constitutional provision means that no government, whether in Delhi or here in Goa, can deny ‘permission’ for a protest. Nearly all protests held are protests against the government; if protesters are to seek the government’s permission before protesting, then that quite simply defeats the purpose of a protest. Protests by their very nature are disruptive and an expression and an outpouring of angst against a government that is unwilling to listen.
What unfolded on the streets of Delhi, Mumbai and other locations is perhaps unheard of in Independent India, save for the dark days of Indira Gandhi’s emergency, and must be condemned as such. Police officials carrying out such illegal orders must be held to account along with those who are issuing these orders in the first place.
In Goa, the High Court took cognisance of the detention of protesters who breached the security cordon around Azad Maidan and ordered their immediate release. It is the urgent need of the hour that courts step in across the country similarly, not so much for the sake of the protesters illegitimately detained but for their own standing as an institution committed to protect rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
Protests serve as a legitimate grievance redressal mechanism and are often resorted to only when other institutions of government fail. Protests in the country so far have remained limited because other mechanisms have functioned effectively. If the Courts, which serve as a last bastion of grievance redressal, fail to serve their purpose, they too will earn the wrath of the people. It’s never too late to change course. The sooner those with the power see the writing on the wall, the better it is for all of us.
