E-Paper
Debate: Right to protest, wrong to disrupt
Tricity readers feel that everyone in a democracy has the right to peaceful protest, but disrupting public movement is unacceptable. They say matters get out of hand because of official apathy. Authorities must keep communication lines open with the protesters and try to resolve matters amicably before tension escalates
Don’t let public suffer
If protesters block roads, streets and create nuisance for public as they have the right to protest, the public also has the right to freedom of movement. One often sees emergency vehicles, such as ambulances carrying patients to hospital getting stuck due to road blockades. It is not fair put another person’s life at risk to push for your demands. Public should be on the receiving end of the tussle between protesters and authorities.
RK Kanwar, Mohali
Timely govt, police action to prevent violence
What happened on the Mohali-Chandigarh border last week was appalling. On being prevented from marching towards the Punjab CM’s residence, protesters turned violent and attacked police with swords, sticks, and sharp-edged weapons, turning the 52/53 dividing road into a battlefield. Had the government and the police taken timely action, such clashes, and harm to cops and inconvenience to commuters could have been avoided.
Abhilasha Gupta, Mohali
Quick mechanism, preventive intelligence
Quick action mechanisms, including preventive intelligence, can help prevent incidents such as the one seen on the Chandigarh-Mohali border on February 8. Democracy is no synonym for disorder and insurrection, which ought to be quelled, and heads must roll for failures in administration.
Lalit Bharadwaj, Panchkula
General public suffers most
People block roads and railway lines to protest against administration because authorities are indifferent to their grievances and pay no heed to their demands for a considerable period of time. The pot will boil and people will get angry if the administration allows the problem to simmer long enough. However, it is true that the general public suffers the most because of road blockades as it disturbs their schedules.
Raghunath Chhabra, Chandigarh
Central government should intervene
YPS school roundabout remains choked with protesters throughout the year. They block the road and cause unnecessary harassment to commuters. The tricity administration should join hands with the state and UT police to tackle such unruly protesters and divert them to a fixed protest site. Chandigarh, being a UT and the capital of two states, remains a favourite among the protesters. The central government needs to intervene and take action reports from the state government and UT administration. No protest should be allowed on roads or highways.
Sunny Dhaliwal, Chandigarh
Protest is democratic right
Protest is a democratic right that people generally resort to when a normal, constitutional solution to the problem is denied for too long. People hold protests when promises are not kept by the powers that be. Politicians should thus desist from making promises that have little possibility of being fulfilled by the promised date. Nevertheless, protesters have no right to block roads or disturb public peace. Judicious dialogue should be the right way out. The government should identify the saner elements among the protesters and talk to them in a dignified manner. Violent reaction should be the last resort because it can aggravate the situation.
JL Davessar, Panchkula
Protest should be last resort
To protest against exploitation, high-handedness, and brute use of power by the authorities is always justified and legal. It is also justified to fight against the inequalities created by a system that denies people the right to live with dignity. The Constitution of India provides freedom to form associations, freedom of speech, and equality before law to all citizens of India. To protest for one’s rights is a legitimate outcome of these freedoms. Trade unions from all around the globe have gained acceptance and have achieved several rights for their members as well as for the whole working class. However, these protests should be a last resort when all the avenues for settlement have been exhausted. These protests should also not be misused to achieve narrow political ends. They should not cause inconvenience to the public whose sympathy they want to gain for the success of their objectives.
PP Arya, via email
Govt should be proactive
Blocking of roads by protesters causes not only problems to common people, it also harms economic productivity. To avoid it, the government should be proactive rather than reactive in understanding and solving the problems and issues of protesters. Instead of buckling under pressure, the government should draw the red lines as to what could be done. More importantly, social and religious organisations should play an active role to convince the protesters not to block public roads. The protesters also need to understand their rights are not absolute and blocking roads will eventually cause public sympathy to dry out.
Anil Uberoi, via email
Blocking roads unjustified
The blocking of roads, railway track, and public properties by the protesters is unjustified. Every citizen does have a right to protest, but it should not be done at the cost of others. They should be entitled to live in peace without any fear. If the protesters get violent and start vandalising or damaging public properties, the tricity should immediately take stringent steps against such fashioned agitations. Protests should only be held at earmarked places only after the agitators or unions have requested to hold them. The police may take a few agitators from the site to the concerned authorities for talks and negotiations. The agitators who defy these orders should be arrested and produced in courts.
Subhash Chugh, via email
Look into demands
Grieving parties are forced to rely on the extreme method of blocking roads due to lack of effective and efficient redressal mechanism. The authorities should look into demands of the aggrieved parties to know if they are genuine or not. However, the protesters also need to understand that inconveniencing the public isn’t doing any good to their cause. Blocking roads is disrupting people’s daily life. Moreover, if the protesters are seeking redressal from the authorities concerned, why is the public made a scapegoat in this endeavour? It is time we have a clear cut and well defined complaint registration system with a redressal mechanism that is efficient, effective and fast to give relief to the aggrieved party.
Rajeev Kumar, Chandigarh
Protesters shouldn’t take law into their hands
Blocking of roads to protest or for any other reason is nothing short of taking law in one’s own hands and should be punishable. Protesters disrupt normal life and cause immense inconvenience to the public. The authorities silence only makes it look like they are on the side of the protesters. It’s worse when the protesters block important roads for weeks on, and authorities do nothing to either address their problem or help the public. State must exercise its might to avoid the situation from turning ugly.
DS Banati, Mohali
An effective way to raise one’s voice
Blocking roads can be an effective way for people to make their voices heard and bring attention to their cause. However, it can also cause inconvenience and disruption to the lives of others, including people who are not involved in the protest. In addition, blocking roads can sometimes result in violent confrontations with law enforcement and property damage. It’s important to note that the legality of blocking roads is a form of protest. In some cases, it may be considered a form of civil disobedience and may be met with arrest or fines. Ultimately, whether or not blocking roads is considered the right way to protest is a matter of variety of factors, including the nature of the protest, the goals of the protesters, and the response of the authorities.
Partha Banerjee, Panchkula
No place for hooliganism
Democracy allows freedom to voice your views but not at the cost of harassing the public or causing damage to public property. For people heading for exams, hospitals etc, road blockades may alter the course of life. Thus hooliganism on the part of protesters should not be tolerated.
Chander Vij, via email
Part of democracy
The right to peaceful assembly is necessary for the functioning of democracy. Ideally, the protestors should submit their grievances before the concerned authorities, but unfortunately their demands are often ignored, which compelled them to take it to the streets. Instead of dispersing the road blockade, the police dragged them into criminal trials. This escalated their agony and added pressure to the already burdened criminal legal system. Why couldn’t the government get the memorandum of issues discussed with protesters and accept whatever is possible to avoid these protests? The protesters do not want to disrupt peace, but the authorities provoke them, for which the governments are squarely responsible.
SK Khosla, Chandigarh
Change the protest spot
It seems that prolonged protests have become a common occurrence, and the inconvenience caused by them have become the new normal. Even though a proper site for protest has already been designated in Sector 25, the recent protesters are blocking the way to two schools, which is wrong at such a crucial time for the students. The spot should be immediately changed. The government should also start negotiations. Policemen should not provoke the protesters as it triggers violence. Some space for movement also needs to be left for emergency vehicles, amidst these protests.
Saikrit Gulati, Chandigarh
Coordination among tricity police
A handful of miscreants should not be allowed to hold public to ransom. There should be a foolproof mechanism in place by which the civil society as well as police of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula coordinate with each other and share intelligence inputs so that anti-social acts can be nipped in the bud.
AK Sharma, Chandigarh
SOPs for handling protesters
Right to protest is a democratic right but at the same time, it is not justified to block roads or railway lines. There should be designated protest sites in all cities. The need of the hour is to draw standard operating procedures, acceptable to both protesters and the tricity administration.
Col TBS Bedi, Mohali
Stubbornness escalates problem
The right to protest must be used judiciously without causing much inconvenience to the public or causing damage to public property. At the same time, the administration should not be indifferent to the protesters’ demands. The stubborn attitude on both sides escalates the problem and the common man becomes the sufferer. The aggrieved party should give sufficient notice time to the administration before resorting to protests. The administration should seriously think about finding an agreeable solution to the problem without prolonging it. The tricity should coordinate and act as a single unit to tackle such situations.
Sqn Ldr Manjit Singh Johar (retd), Chandigarh
Timely government intervention
The ongoing protests at the Chandigarh-Mohali border would have never escalated, had the government intervened at the right time. Sikhs, who are known worldwide for their ‘Sewa-bhaavna’ are doing the complete opposite here by inconveniencing the public. It is also strange that the party in power in Punjab, which is known to serve the ‘Aam-Aadmi’ also has done nothing to help the commoners, who are hassled daily due to these protests. Strict legal action is needed as protest has now become a commonplace for the region.
Prerna Kaur Aujla, Chandigarh
Don’t tolerate road blockades
No public inconvenience should be tolerated in any form of protest. They do not have permission to cause inconvenience by blocking roads, as it hampers the movement of traffic that even critical patients can get stuck in. The police should not allow any protest on the roads. There should be a separate area earmarked for demonstrations and protests. Keeping in view the nature of the protest, a sufficient number of police personnel should be deployed in advance to prevent the situation from spiralling out of control. Protesters should remain peaceful as they are more effective when creating real change.
Anil Kumar Yadav, Chandigarh
Press for your cause, don’t pause normalcy
Protests, agitations, disruptions are ways to make the government address the concerns of the public and various pressure groups. Even parliamentarians disrupt Parliament proceedings, so why shouldn’t members of the public. The government must apply due diligence before making any policy or act and if the governance is transparent, honest, it will barely invite any protest. But no protest should come at the cost of disruption in normal life.
Capt Amar Jeet (retd), Kharar
Resolve matter peacefully
Peacefully raising your voice is the beauty of democracy but blocking roads and creating ruckus only means harassment for those who are not the
policy makers and have nothing to do with the demands. A common man who is too busy earning bread and is the real sufferer. Living around this area of protest at Mohali-Chandigarh border, I can vouch for the fear on the faces of people for the loss of their lives and properties. Another important question is why is the administration letting the protestors to set up tents at YPS Chowk? Why wasn’t action taken earlier when people were gathering there? I feel administration should now form a committee to peacefully resolve the matter.
Anurag Sharma, Mohali
Instill fear of law
Protesters in Chandigarh have made it a habit to block roads to press for their demands. The recent clashes at the 52/53 dividing road reflects the government’s inability to rein in on those disrupting the law. Those carrying sharp-edged weapons, swords, knives, or sticks that are used to harm the public should be detained.
Abhilasha Gupta, Mohali
Reader of the week
Protest, but not at the cost of public
People have the right to protest but no right to block another person’s way. Blocking roads to press for a cause would only antagonise the public, who would in turn lose sympathy for the protesters. No protest can be successful without public support. A protest should be well-planned, and held preferably in a designated area and after prior intimation to the authorities. For better visibility, the organisers can get in touch with the media and also use social media to push for the demands.
Capt Puneet Raj Singh, via email
Expert take
Timely inputs
For unions coming to Chandigarh from Punjab and Haryana, we make adequate law-and-order arrangements based on intelligence inputs from states concerned, and also actively seek their coordination. Sharing timely inputs is the key.
Manisha Choudhary, SSP Chandigarh & traffic and security
Don’t trouble public
Everyone has the right to protest, but in a peaceful manner. India is the largest democracy and we cannot stop anyone from expressing their views or putting forth their demands. But blocking roads and causing harassment to road users is not right.
Sandeep Garg, SSP Mohali
Right of way
Every city has places earmarked for protests, but in Mohali, protests on roads are creating inconvenience to commuters. Due to the road blockade on one road, other roads are getting choked, increasing chances of mishaps. Authorities should seriously think on the issue.
Maj Gen TPS Waraich (retd), director, Yadavindra Public School, Mohali
Designated protest sites
Instead of blocking common roads, the CM’s house should be gheraoed or protests should be staged at designated spots. Protesters should not cause inconvenience to the common public.
Sarabjit Singh Paras, president, MWA Phase 7
Getting heard
We had requested Chandigarh SSP to open the road from one side but she refused and asked us to shift the protest to a nearby temple, which is not possible. We have not erected any tent in the middle of the road beyond YPS Chowk. If we didn’t care about public interest, we would have completely blocked YPS Chowk.”
Dilsher Singh Jandiala, organiser, Quami Insaaf Morcha
