Lift protest curbs by Constitution Day or face civil disobedience, groups in Bengaluru tell Karnataka government

Arguing that the right to protest is essential to protecting the Constitution and democracy, civil society groups on Monday (October 26) demanded that the Karnataka government lift restrictions confining protests in Bengaluru and “free” the right to protest from Freedom Park. The groups have given the State government until November 26, Constitution Day, to revoke the order. If the restrictions are not lifted by then, they said they would launch a city-wide civil disobedience movement on November 28. 

Criticising the Congress government’s “double standards”, the groups pointed out that the Congress demand for the right to protest and reclaim streets in Delhi while protesters raising similar demands in Bengaluru face detention and police cases. 

The Campaign for the Right to Protest (Horatada Hakkigagi Janandolana) organised a round-table discussion attended by historian Ramachandra Guha, besides other groups and representatives of student organisations, street vendors’ associations and labour groups. 

Mr. Guha said the right to peaceful protest was supported not only by Constitutional principles but also by the legal position. He criticised the restriction of protests to Freedom Park, saying it kept public dissent away from the places where people could see and engage with it. “Ever since Freedom Park was designated the only site for protest, I have been calling it the ‘where freedom is shut away park’,” he said. 

Recalling protests in Bengaluru over the decades, including demonstrations against the steel flyover project and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Mr. Guha said the city had gradually lost access to public spaces for dissent. He pointed to the closure of Town Hall for protests in December 2019 and said the Covid-19 pandemic further helped the government to restrict public demonstrations across the country. 

Members of the campaign, such as advocate Vinay Sreenivasa and Maithreyi Krishnan, said they had been asking the State government to withdraw the 2021 order restricting protests in Bengaluru and restore the earlier 2009 order, which did not confine demonstrations to a single venue. They argued that limiting protests to Freedom Park prevented people from taking their demands directly to the authorities concerned. 

The groups said protest was a way for citizens to make their concerns publicly visible and seek accountability and questioned why people demanding the right to protest in Delhi could do so while those raising the same demand in Bengaluru, barely 100 metres from the designated protest area, faced detention. 

The groups also criticised the police for citing the High Court order to restrict demonstrations and said the process had shifted from “informing“ the police about a protest to seeking their permission. They argued that organisers were asked to change dates on grounds such as inadequate police security.  

The campaign demands that the State government withdraw the restrictions and quash FIRs against people for protesting outside Freedom Park.