Writer-historian Ramachandra Guha speaks during a press meet on restrictive order on protests in Bengaluru city.
DH Photo/SK Dinesh
Public protests, for or against various causes, which are an integral party of democracy, have virtually become invisible in Bengaluru with the government restricting such agitations to Freedom Park. In 2021, Justice Aravind Kumar, then a judge of the Karnataka High Court, wrote a letter to the then Chief Justice of the High Court drawing his attention to a newspaper report about protests causing traffic jams in Bengaluru. The court converted this letter into a sou moto PIL.
Even during the pendency of the PIL, the then BJP government headed by Basavaraj Bommai introduced the draconian Licensing and Regulation of Protests, Demonstrations and Protest Marches (Bengaluru City) Order, 2021, which came into effect from January 2022. This order imposed several restrictions on all forms of protest, including distribution of pamphlets, sloganeering and candle light vigils, and relegated them to Freedom Park.
In an open letter to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, nearly 600 citizens and activists have demanded that the government lift these restrictions and identify multiple locations across the city to hold protests. The premise that protests alone lead to traffic jams is not correct as congestions are mostly caused by poor infrastructure, potholes, inadequate public transport, political road shows and VIP convoys, among others.
The High Court had earlier slammed the then police commissioner Bhaskar Rao for imposing Section 144 during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and had struck down the order as it curtailed fundamental rights. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the right to protest and dissent must be encouraged by the State for healthy functioning of democracy. In 1978, a constitutional bench had ruled in Himat Lal Shah v. Commissioner of Police that the right to assemble was subject to regulation, but regulation could not include outright prohibition.
A certain amount of public inconvenience and discomfort succeeds in drawing the government’s attention, as otherwise protests often go largely unnoticed. Earlier, a small corner in Cubbon Park diagonally opposite Vidhana Soudha was reserved for protesters who would invariably attract the attention of ministers and legislators passing by.
Protests now have zero impact as they are confined to Freedom Park and do not even come to the notice of the powers-that-be. Bengaluru being a large city, several issues are specific to certain areas or groups and as such mandating that all agitations be held at one central, hidden location makes no sense. The government should immediately withdraw the 2021 order and designate multiple locations in the city for citizens to make their voices heard. The right of the people to dissent cannot be curbed through such restrictive orders. Does the Siddaramaiah government hold the same view of the right to protest as the Bommai government?