On 13th December 2023, a loud and clear statement was made by four youths when two of them opened smoke canisters inside the Parliament chamberand raised slogans against dictatorship, highlighting farmers’ concerns, the ongoing Manipur conflict, unemployment and the pathetic state of affairs in the country. The other two outside the Parliament building sprayed coloured gas and raised slogans against dictatorship and the ongoing violence against minorities. All six of them have been arrested and charged with multiple sections from the Indian Penal Code including sections on criminal conspiracy and causing riots—along with the draconian UAPA being slapped on them. The RSS-BJP government has unjustly labelled and dealt with this demonstrative act as an act of terror. This baseless characterisation aims to subject these youth to repressive UAPA measures, thus diverting attention from the crucially significant issues raised by them; issues that have been resonating nationwide. Even the opposition parties fixated on the matter of ‘security breach’ rather than pushing for shifting attention to the issues raised.
The young individuals hail from different parts of the country and none of them are formally employed. They got acquainted through ‘Bhagat Singh Fan Club’ on social media. They were influenced by the historic acts of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt, who, on 8th April, 1929, threw leaflets and smoke bombs from the gallery onto the Central Legislative Assembly. “It takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear…” the pamphlet Bhagat Singh and Dutt threw into the house began. The intention was to put out a point that would resound across the empire of the colonial exploiters. This demonstration was against the introduction of two bills, namely the Public Safety Bill, which allowed the detention of suspects without any trial (a bill introduced as Communist Deportation Bill, later revamped as Public Safety Bill), and a Trade Dispute Bill, which allowed the Britishers to declare any kind of protest as illegal, especially strikes, thus curbing the hard- earned rights of workers.
In a similar incident around 1972-73, numerous young activists demonstrated dissent by throwing pamphlets from the gallery in the Karnataka legislative assembly. The protestors threw pamphlets and raised slogans against MLAs who had neglected their constituencies during times of drought. They were immediately arrested. They were led by Prof M D Nanjundaswamy, who was a leading voice against globalisation. He strongly stood against the World Trade Organisation and multinational companies in developing countries. In the 1990s, he took a firm stand against neoliberal reforms brought forth by the Indian government.
In 2013, in the same place, six activists raised slogans against the government and threw papers inside the House, demanding more powers to the Lokayukta—a state-level body that handles complaints about corruption and mismanagement from the public. They were also arrested by the police.
Incidents like these are a clear reflection of the youth’s disillusionment with the false promises made by the government. The people do not have an avenue to express their discontent with the state. The reaction we saw—of the RSS-BJP government, of the opposition parties, an and of the media, right after the incident reinforces the core issues they were raising, indicating that the reaction itself is a part of the problem. These acts should be seen as an expression of collective anger generated upon being subjected to everyday exploitation by the ruling classes. Cumulative rage spills out through such lone acts of dissent, sometimes as part of a greater political foment, sometimes without. Instead of treating the recent incident as a legitimate act of dissent, the youths have been arrested under UAPA, an act that has given the government extensive powers, leading to the arbitrary targeting of individuals daring to dissent. Every citizen should actively demand the repeal of UAPA, as it is a tool that is being rampantly used to suppress all anti-establishment political activities.
All progressive and democratic forces should strongly condemn the use of the unjust UAPA on the protestors who were raising people’s issues, and demand their immediate release.
