‘It was our only chance to be heard directly by Shah, would have regretted missing opportunity’

New Delhi: “It was our only chance to be directly heard by the home minister. It would have been the biggest regret of my life had I let go of that opportunity,”

New Delhi: “It was our only chance to be directly heard by the home minister. It would have been the biggest regret of my life had I let go of that opportunity,” 27-year-old Surya Rajappan, a lawyer who, along with her flatmate, was allegedly threatened by a mob for unfurling a banner against the Citizenship Amendment Act during home minister Amit Shah’s door-to-door campaign in Lajpat Nagar-2 Sunday.

HT Image

Soon after the incident, the two women were heckled by a crowd and later were allegedly asked by the house owner to vacate their flat.

Rajappan, and her architect flatmate, whom she refused to identify, had hurriedly pulled out a white bedsheet and used paints to write anti-CAA slogans on it before unfurling it from the balcony of their third floor home in Lajpat Nagar-2’s Block C around 5pm Sunday.

“The home minister did not look up, but I am sure he got to know of our protest,” Rajappan, a high court lawyer who usually takes up cases related to intellectual property rights, told HT.

Rajappan’s family lives in another part of the city, but she and her roommate had moved into the Lajpat Nagar house two months ago. “We have been a part of protests against the citizenship Act. We have read the Act and know it is not good for the country,” Rajappan, who hails from Kerala, said.

So, when she got to know on Saturday that Shah would be on a door-to-door campaign in Lajpat Nagar the next day, the two women decided to stage their protest. On the bedsheet, they wrote the words ‘shame’, ‘Jai Hind’, ‘Azaadi’ and ‘#NotInMyName’ and crossed out words such as ‘CAA’ and ‘NRC’.

“We made sure not to write any derogatory or personal comment against Shah or the government,” she said.

When Shah passed by, the two women unfurled the banner even as Rajappan shouted slogans against the citizenship Act. “That drew the attention of the people on the streets. They began abusing us and shouted that we were doing it for media attention,” she said.

Rajappan alleged that her house owner was “a part of the mob” and he “spontaneously” asked them to pack up their belongings and vacate the house.

“Someone from the flat below pulled away our banner and tore it up. That was followed by some men barging into the building and trying to break into our flat. We locked the flat from inside even as they kept banging on the door and abusing us,” she said.

While they remained locked up, Rajappan said she dialled her lawyer friends, her father and the police. “But when my father and friends tried to enter the house, the owner refused to let them in. The owner and others lectured my father on how they had failed in my upbringing and that I was a woman without character. We were so frightened that we stayed locked inside for nearly seven hours,” she said.

The police, she said, were cooperative as they later took her complaint and deployed a woman officer outside her house till she and her roommate vacated the flat.

“The house owner kept telling us and my father that he didn’t want us there anymore and that we would have to vacate immediately. The police later conveyed to us that the owner had allowed us to stay, but the place is not safe for us anymore. We have now moved out,” she said, while refusing to reveal her present address.

When HT visited the house on Wednesday to seek the version of the house owner, the occupants refused to speak. “Speak to the police,” said two occupants of the house before shutting the gates.

The police cited “sensitivity” of the matter while refusing to come on record. But an officer, on condition of anonymity, said no FIR will be registered in the matter. “It was an issue between a landowner and tenant. We ensured that they were not physically attacked,” the officer said.