Bengaluru: Karnataka home minister Priyank Kharge and chief minister DK Shivakumar Tuesday reiterated that peaceful protest is fundamental to democracy and promised a review of police action against anti-SIR demonstrators in Bengaluru.
They also sought restoration of the 2009 order governing assemblies and processions. “The Licensing Order, 2021, restricting protests to Freedom Park must be withdrawn.
Activists, however, said assurances were not enough and demanded withdrawal of the police licensing order that restricts all protests in the city to Freedom Park. We cannot demand that right for ourselves in Delhi and deny it to others in Bengaluru,” Shivakumar said, adding that there would be “no double standards”. Protests cannot be caged in Freedom Park; holding placards and shouting slogans cannot be criminalised; peaceful marches cannot be met with police violence,” advocate and activist Clifton Rozario said. My Vote, My Right, which had organised Monday’s protest march, welcomed Kharge’s decision, but urged the govt to withdraw the 2021 licensing order and restore the “2009 assemblies order” instead. Activists of the Horatada Hakkigagi Janandolana said a protest over a neighbourhood grievance loses its relevance when residents must travel to a central venue to be heard.
The demand follows Monday’s detention of protesters who had gathered near KR Circle to march to the chief electoral officer’s office against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Police detained them after they refused to move to Freedom Park, while photojournalists covering the action were allegedly manhandled. “The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy. He, along with Kharge, was in Delhi Monday to be part of anti-SIR protests. The organisation also questioned Shivakumar over what it saw as a contradiction between his participation in a protest in Delhi and the action against demonstrators in Bengaluru, asking: “One law for you, one law for us — why?