India Behind The Lens (News Centre)

The Congress party is fuming that its star leader Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to stage a protest meeting in support of the farmers of Bhatta Parsaul in UP. A guarded Mayawati did not grant permission to the party. But then, why should the Congress object?

Anna Hazare wants to hold a dharna at Jantar-Mantar in New Delhi, but a fearing Congress-led government too has refused permission.

Congress leader Digvijay Singh made the government’s intentions clear. Asked what would happen if Anna insisted on sitting on hunger strike Digvijay Singh replied “ Jaisa hota aaya hai, vaisa aur ho jayega ”. He indicated that Anna would get the same treatment that was meted out to Swami Ramdev. Then, why is the Congress crying foul when Mayawati’s police stopped its Nyay Yatra and beat up its supporters in Lucknow. Is it only the Congress which has the right to protest in this country?

I asked Digvijay Singh on my show Aap Ki Adalat: “ How can you justify the midnight brutal police action on Ramdev’s supporters?”. He replied: “ Ramdev had no permission to sit on a dharna in Ramlila Maidan”.

I asked:“ When you and Rahul Gandhi sat on dharna for 19 hours in Bhatta Parsaul – did you have any permission?” Digvijay Singh’s reply was: there was no section 144 in Bhatta Parsaul.

But then there was no section 144 at Ramlila Maidan either when Ramdev supporters gathered there. Yet another argument given was that Ramdev was granted permission to have a gathering of only 5000 people, but he collected more that 50,000 people.

My question is: If permission was granted for 5000 people, then why did police allow 50,000 people to enter Ramlila Maidan. Each and every individual was cleared by police security before one reached the venue. Now the police is saying that there was a threat to Ramdev’s life, but the Baba insists that the police faked an e-mail to create a false terror threat.

Digivijay Singh and the police should stop looking for excuses. They should make up their mind to explain why Ramdev and his supporters were forced out of Ramlila Maidan. The Government has to explain why Anna cannot sit on dharna at Jantar Mantar. Has the government forgotten what happened when a petition was filed in Delhi High Court that it was peoples’ fundamental right to assemble peacefully and protest. The Delhi police assured the court that it recognised the right to protest and public will be allowed to gather at Jantar Mantar and adjoining areas to raise their voices of dissent.

Anna says that he is ready to face lathi and he is ready to go to jail. And what did Digvijay Singh tell him: “ If Anna is ready to sit on a dharna in Lucknow to protest against Mayawati’s corruption I will also join him ”.

It seems that Digvijay feels protest march, dharna, hunger strike are justified only if they are directed against Mayawati. I am sure if Ramdev also joins the battle against Mayawati, Digvijay will withdraw his “Thug” remark against the Baba.

Many Congress leaders are busy explaining the concept of ‘Satyagraha’ propounded by Mahatma Gandhi. I want to ask them: Will you now decide on which issue a dharna is justified and where? Is there a rule book on how much can you protest and against whom? If Rahul Gandhi has the right to sit on a dharna without permission, then why not Anna and Ramdev ? Why is it that when Rahul was arrested in Bhatta Parsaul in the middle of night and dispatched to Delhi by Mayawati’s cops, the Congress declared it as a murder of democracy. And when Ramdev’s followers were chased out to clear Ramlila Maidan it was hailed as the need of the hour.

I had thought that the Congress leaders had learnt their lesson from the Emergency imposed in 1975. For 19 months there was no voice of dissent heard throughout the country. All opposition leaders were thrown into jail. Newspapers were censored. Citizens’ right to freedom of expression was demolished. But when elections took place, the Congress was wiped out.

And don’t forget that those days, there was no privately-run TV news channels, no mobile phones for SMS campaigns, no Facebook, no blogs. And India was not so young.

Times have changed. So the Congress should now think twice before curbing people’s right to protest. It should beware of the common man, the ‘aam aadmi’, who is silently watching. It should be cautious of the alert voter, who is patiently waiting for the day of polling.