New Delhi : Out of sight, out of mind. With Jantar Mantar no longer on Delhi’s protest map, the opposition has questioned whether the government’s move aimed to make it harder for citizens to take their protests to the seat of power. The order by Delhi Police, which is under the Home Ministry, comes amid a charged political moment. Over the past week, central Delhi has been gripped by massive protests by the opposition and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The opposition has raised a pertinent question. Why should protesters go to the outskirts of Delhi to voice their anger with central Delhi? This was flagged by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. “The BJP is deeply rattled and scared. It wants to keep people away from places where those in power sit, to shield itself from public anger,” Yadav tweeted. Akhilesh asserted that a space should have been allotted for protests on Lok Kalyan Marg itself. “That would have also helped justify the name.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke underlined that the move would not silence dissent, but instead turn the entire country into Jantar Mantar. Tomorrow, PM Modi will denotify democracy itself. The dictator’s problem was never the protest site. It was the very idea of people protesting, Dipke tweeted. On the other hand, the Delhi Police has argued that frequent protests at Jantar Mantar not only paralyse central Delhi – the seat of power – but also affect businesses and traders.
In 1993, as the Babri Masjid movement gripped the country, the then Congress government banned protests at the Boat Club. That is how Jantar Mantar came into the picture. Among the three, Ramlila Maidan is the closest to central Delhi. It is around 3 km from Jantar Mantar, but access to it comes at a massive cost. To book the 12-acre ground, which can accommodate 50,000 people, one has to shell out Rs 50,000 a day, along with a refundable security deposit of Rs 55,000, according to a PTI report.
The 12-acre venue in Shahdara, which can accommodate 15,000 people, is located in a densely populated residential area. The site is normally used for weddings and other cultural events. Holding any sort of protest here will be a traffic nightmare. The other protest site, the Nirankari Ground in Burari, is farther away – about 22 km from Jantar Mantar. While the 50-acre site can accommodate up to 1 lakh people, the concern is its location.
Read Also : CJP Founder Calls Detention Over Flag Hoisting at Jantar Mantar a Sign of Dictatorial Mentality
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