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.Activists, however, said assurances were not enough and demanded the withdrawal of the police licensing order restricting protests to Freedom Park and restoration of the 2009 order governing assemblies and processions.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 also allegedly manhandled.Kharge said he had instructed police to ensure peaceful demonstrations were not disrupted. Shivakumar said he had sought a full report on the circumstances leading to the police action and warned that accountability would follow if there had been unnecessary use of force or excess.“The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy. 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”. He, along with Kharge, was in Delhi on Monday to protest against SIR.Activists welcomed the assurances but said the govt must address the restrictions that, they argue, make it difficult to protest at the site of an issue or draw public attention to local grievances.“The Licensing Order, 2021 by the commissioner of police restricting protests to Freedom Park must be withdrawn, just as any restriction to designated venues for protests in any city. 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.He added that police power could not be used against legitimate struggles in defence of the Constitution.My Vote, My Right, which had organised Monday’s protest march, welcomed Kharge’s decision to review the police handling of protesters and journalists, but urged the govt to withdraw the 2021 licensing order and restore the “2009 assemblies order”. 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?”A woman protester who was forcibly dragged away by police on Monday said restricting demonstrations to Freedom Park curtailed citizens’ rights. “This rule is what allows the police to deem any protest outside the said venue, even if it is barely a kilometre away, illegitimate,” she said.Activists under the Horatada Hakkigagi Janandolana said the restriction had also affected people seeking to raise local issues. A protest over a neighbourhood grievance, they argued, loses its immediate relevance when residents must travel to a central venue to be heard. They have cited workers, farmers, pourakarmikas, Dalit activists and residents protesting civic issues among those whose demonstrations have been affected.The coalition was, as of late Tuesday, preparing a fresh memorandum to the govt. On the same as the CM and Kharge’s assurances, Bengaluru police commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh said KR Circle was a heavily congested junction and police had asked protesters to shift to Freedom Park. He said the protesters refused and blocked the road, following which police removed the blockade and made preventive arrests.Acknowledging a confrontation involving protesters, police and media personnel, Singh described it as unintentional and said officers had been instructed to exercise utmost care. He maintained that the right to protest in Bengaluru was, under the court’s order, limited to Freedom Park, and said police were prepared to provide protection when informed in advance.
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Activists insist that reviewing Monday’s police action must go hand in hand with changing the rules governing where people can demonstrate. They want the govt to withdraw the 2021 order and restore the 2009 framework, under which they say protests could be held at different locations after informing the police.
