Students, youth, workers, and civil society activists of Bengaluru under the banner of Horatada Hakkigagi Janandolana (People’s Movement for the Right to Protest) gathered near the Gandhi statue in Maurya Circle on 2nd October to oppose the unjust ban on protests outside Freedom Park in Bengaluru. After appeals and memoranda failed to garner response, the coalition decided to flout this unjust order calling for a Civil Disobedience rally from the Gandhi Statue at Maurya Circle to the Ambedkar Statue at Vidhana Soudha. The order in question is ‘The Licensing and Regulation of Protests, Demonstration and Protest Marches (Bangalore City), 2021’ which was promulgated by the Police commissioner under the Police act. The group was met with brutal force, the Police manhandled and detained over 125 protestors merely for upholding that Right to protest is a fundamental right. It was demanded that the order which came up in the BJP regime be undone by the current government led by a party that supposedly protects constitutional values. However, this action has raised serious questions in the mind of progressive-democratic people regarding Congress’s idea of democracy.
In extension of this, various student organizations have come together under the banner of Horatada Hakkigagi Janandolana (Vidyarthi-Yuvajanara Okkuta) to free protests from the confines of Freedom Park. Signature campaigns are underway in campuses across the city in order to spread awareness about Right to Protest alongside general student demands:
1. Ensure timely disbursal and hiking of scholarships.
2. Scrap all remnants of the National Education Policy, 2020 from educational institutes in Karnataka.
3. Bring back student democracy in the
campuses of Karnataka by revoking the government order banning student unions.
4. Regulate fees for public and private colleges.
5. Reject corporatisation and saffronisation of education. Uphold universal and inclusive education.
6. Extend the ambit of RTE Act to include students till the age of 18.
7. Include criminal penalties in the Karnataka Education Act for harassment of students by educational authorities.
Facilitated by communally dividing people, BJP-RSS’s regime has brought a major fascist onslaught on the broad masses of the country. On one hand land and livelihoods of workers, farmers, Adivasis, students and youth are under attack by anti-worker, anti-farmer laws, saffronised and corporatized education policy, rising unemployment, and rampant natural resource loot, on the other hand any act of dissent is met with an iron fist by use of state machinery like police and draconian laws. In this situation, a section of democratic people are banking on the Congress Party to restore democracy in the country. Incidents like this however, raise serious questions on the political will of the Congress. Even 6 months after being voted into power, major anti-people policies of the BJP like Factories Act Amendment (which replaces the traditional 8 hours workday with 12 hours and lets employers enforce night shift for women), anti cow-slaughter law, Hijab bans, anti-farmer state laws etc. continue. Although the Karnataka government has scrapped the NEP, given the announcement of corporate takeover of government schools has made it clear that the upcoming State Education Policy (SEP) will preserve all the essence of corporatization of education from the NEP.
Bengaluru, with a very high concentration of foreign and domestic investment, has to be kept dissent free and “peaceful” in the eyes of these
corporate masters. This fascist policy
led the erstwhile BJP-RSS government to impose this ban in the name of “Traffic issues”. The Congress government’s efforts to preserve this ban exposes its class character.
Later in the same month, the same order was enacted in Bengaluru against the people who opposed the US-imperialism backed Israel’s occupation of Palestine, by forming a human chain in M.G Road. Police tried to stop the demonstration by dispersing the groups and detaining some activists. However, the police were compelled to let the gathering continue as thousands came down on the streets. In the continuation of the same issue, the Left parties were denied permission to protest in support of Palestine even in Freedom park. The absurd reason that the park lacks adequate space was cited. The parties, however, continued their peaceful agitation in the bounds of Freedom Park only to again get manhandled and detained.
These instances reinforce the ethos of this order, that is to squash dissent and expression of the will of the people by making protests and demonstrations invisible. The fascist Government of India has been expressing its support to the Zionist colonial project, a stance not shared by the masses of India. The order was used to mask the solidarity of the masses with Palestine contrary to Modi’s championing of the settler colonial state of Israel that is orchestrating a genocide of the Palestinians at this very moment. The Congress Party that has historically stood in support of Palestine, with this act of appeasing the BJP-RSS central government, has further raised eyebrows.
Historically, be it the 8 hour workday or women’s voting rights, rights have never been served on a platter. We have had to fight for them on the streets. And when streets are not free, the democracy loving students-youth of Bengaluru will have to take the lead to build a militant Civil Disobedience movement. We have to flout this unjust order by flooding the streets. This is the only way to free dissent from the confines of Freedom Park creating a democratic space for the broad masses of the people to fight for their rights.
Long live the Right to Protest movement!
Long live the struggle to free Palestine!
Long live the unity of democratic Students and Youth!
