When protest is pushed out of sight

Why in the News

Delhi Police have withdrawn the status of Jantar Mantar, about 3 km from India Gate, as a protest site and named three distant grounds instead. The move continues a steady removal of protest from the seat of power.

What is a protest site, and what has changed in Delhi?

1. What it is: A protest site is a public place where citizens press demands on those in power, like a noticeboard placed where the authorities must read it. It links people through shared dress, song, slogan and movement.
2. Inversion of power: A protest site puts the marginalised at the centre of public attention. A carnival does the reverse, keeping the dominant group at the centre.
3. Three distant grounds: Delhi Police have designated three venues in place of Jantar Mantar:
   • Ramlila Ground, central Delhi, about 5 km away;
   • Burari Ground, north Delhi, about 20 km away;
   • CBD Ground, east Delhi, about 12 km away.
4. The takeaway: Protest at distant grounds stays legal but no longer reaches those in power, so the protesters become invisible to them.

How has protest been pushed out of central Delhi?

1. Rajpath reclaimed: A 2022 CEPT University paper traces how the government closed Rajpath, the stretch from Parliament to India Gate, one layer of barricades at a time:
   • first barricades after the Nirbhaya protest of 2012, near Parliament;
   • more barricades after the Hathras protest;
   • complete closure with the farmers’ protest of 2020.
2. Infrastructure without squares: Public capital expenditure rose from ₹2 lakh crore a little over a decade ago to ₹12.2 lakh crore this year, yet built almost no public squares for gathering.
3. Map of exclusion: During the capital’s recent virtual shutdown, red dots on maps of central Delhi steered people around closed areas, showing the unease of those in power.

What do former protest squares abroad show about how states treat dissent?

1. Egypt: Tahrir Square, centre of the January 2011 revolution, has been remade around Nile cruises and museums.
2. China: Tiananmen Square in Beijing is now a tourist attraction. The protest captured in the Tank Man image survives only in memory.
3. Iran: Tehran’s Azadi Tower, a site of the 1979 Revolution, now hosts state sanctioned rallies.
4. Exceptions: London’s Hyde Park and Paris’s Place de la Bastille remain places where dissent is a way of life.

Why does moving protest away weaken democracy?

1. Doubt and the critic: Doubt is central to critical thinking. In ancient Indian texts the vidushak (court jester) could mock the king, and this licensed critic disappeared long before monarchy ended.
2. Democracy as performance: Moving the site shields the government from criticism. Democracy is then reduced to a performance that takes away people’s power to act, express and resist (Yanis Varoufakis).
3. Mismatch with ambition: Shrinking protest space does not fit a country set to become the world’s third largest economy.

Challenges

1. Unchecked police discretion: Delhi Police, under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, designate and withdraw sites without published criteria.
2. Distance as denial: Distant grounds keep protest legal but strip it of the audience it is meant to reach.
3. Barricades that stay: Closures raised for one protest become permanent, as on Rajpath.

Way Forward

1. Published criteria: Notify rules for designating and withdrawing protest sites, with written reasons.
2. A central site retained: Keep a regulated protest space within sight of Parliament and the ministries.
3. Squares in city plans: Require large public works in the capital to set aside squares for gathering.
4. Barricades with an end date: Remove barricades once the protest they were raised for ends.

Conclusion

Delhi’s protest map now places dissent where those in power need not see it, part of more than a decade of closures in the capital’s centre. Whether courts and planners treat nearness to power as part of the right to assemble will decide if protest regains a place at the centre.

What is the right to protest?

1. Constitutional basis: No Article names it. It flows from Article 19(1)(a) (speech and expression) and Article 19(1)(b) (assembling peaceably and without arms).
2. Reasonable restrictions: Article 19(3) allows reasonable restrictions on assembly in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India and public order.
3. Jantar Mantar ruling: Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan v. Union of India (2018) held that a blanket ban on protests at Jantar Mantar was impermissible and directed guidelines for regulated demonstrations there.
4. No indefinite occupation: Amit Sahni v. Commissioner of Police (2020), on the Shaheen Bagh protest, held that public ways cannot be occupied indefinitely.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2026] X’ was addressing a seminar on the meaning of the term ‘law’ as provided under Article 13, Part III of the Constitution of India. ‘X’ explained that the meaning of the term ‘law’ in the Constitution of India was very comprehensive. It included ordinances, orders and even rules and regulations. ‘Y’ pointed out that the term ‘law’ in Article 13 also included custom or usage having in the territory of India the force of law, to which ‘X’ was not convinced. Based on the above, select the correct conclusion from the options given below: (a) X is correct in the interpretation of law, including the view on non-inclusion of custom (b) The view of Y that ‘law’ included custom is not correct (c) The views of both X and Y are correct (d) The view of only Y is correct ANSWER: D”