WEB DESK / NEW DELHI
Supreme Court-appointed interlocutor Wajahat Habibullah has filed a report in the Supreme Court saying that the protest in Shaheen Bagh is “peaceful” and blamed the police for “unnecessarily blocking the roads”.
His report says that it is barricading by the police that has led to chaotic situation.
He also wants the police to reveal the names of persons responsible for blocking all other roads, excepting the protest site.
Report mentions that the roads leading to Jamia, New Friends Colony etc from the roundabout of Kalindi Kund Metro station, access to Noida on the Expressway to Delhi & Faridabad and access from Akshardham Temple on the Yamuna Bridge, among many others, that have been blocked by the police, are far away and had no connection with the protest site.
In a harsh criticism of the government, the former bureaucrat’s report says that the government has not entered into dialogue with protesters on CAA issue and is trying to crush it.
“Even though the CAA-NRC-NPR is a burning issue and attracting dissent across the length and breadth of the country, the Government has not engaged in constructive dialogue with the protestors to understand their concerns, adding that the crushing of dissent instead of entering into a dialogue is the new norm and also alien to or constitution”, he says in his report.
“The ladies at the site include the old, middle aged and young along with little children. The assembly is peaceful”, says the affidavit.
He has mentioned six points in his report which the ladies on protest want to convey to the court. The points are:
- The protests were a way of peaceful dissent against the CAA-NRC-NPR, a legislation, which has struck deep, fear into the hearts of the poor & underprivileged.
- The protestors saw the CAA-NRC-NPR as a threat to their survival and that of their future generations and came out to protest out of desperation.
- They have faced blanket threats to theirs lives for their dissenting voices but they continue to protest as their survival is at stake.
4.None of the residents or shopkeepers around Shaheen Bagh have objected to their peaceful protests but in fact have empathized with the cause.
- They are proud citizens of India and are deeply hurt to have been labelled as traitors/anti-nationals/Pakistani’s by the political parties & by the media.
- They stated that protest site at Shaheen Bagh provides them with security as it is flanked from all sides and emergency vehicles are given immediate and safe passage.
“It would be in the fitness of things if the police are asked to reveal the names of the persons who were responsible for the decision to block all other parallel & arterial roads on the area and in U.P. instead of carrying out their duty of regulating the traffic on the same”, Habibullah said in his report.
The Shaheen Bagh Protests have been going on for more than two months as a voice of dissent against the CAA-NRC-NPR.
On February 7, 2020, the Supreme Court had issued notice on a plea seeking clearance of Shaheen Bagh protesters from the roadi but had refused to pass any directions in that regard.
On February 17, a mediation panel comprising of Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde and Advocate Sadhna Ramachandran was set up by the apex court to engage in a dialogue with the protesters on site.