Mediators propose talks with protesters away from media glare

The Supreme Court-appointed interlocutors, senior advocates Sanjay Hegde and Sadhana Ramachandran visited Shaheen Bagh on Wednesday (February 19) to initiate talks and convince the protesters of the need to shift to another venue that wouldn’t pose much of a problem to the commoners. Their move is in line with the Supreme Court’s direction to them to mediate.

Even as the mediators sought a dialogue with the protesters, away from the glare of the media, the agitators insisted on discussing matters in the presence of the reporters.

“The Supreme Court has upheld your right to protest. But then other citizens also have their rights and it should also be maintained,” Ramachandran told the crowd assembled at the spot in large numbers.

“We want to together find a solution to the problem. We will listen to everyone,” she said in Hindi.

Earlier, Hegde explained the Supreme Court order to the protesters. This was translated into Hindi by Ramachandran.

Prior to that, the interlocutors told reporters that they had come to Shaheen Bagh to listen to people who had assembled in large numbers.

“We have come here according to the order of the SC. We hope to speak to everyone. We hope to resolve the matter with everybody’s cooperation,” said Hegde.

The protesters have been on a sit-in against the new citizenship law for over two months.

On Monday, the top court had observed that the protesters had every right to protest but it was against the practice of blocking roads and causing inconvenience to the general public. The Court said, “We are not saying that people have no right to protest during the pendency of the case. It is people’s fundamental right to assemble and protest. But the question is where to protest. Tomorrow there may be another law passed and what will happen if people start blocking roads in protest. What will if everybody starts blocking the roads. Our concern is what would it lead to if people start blocking the roads. It will create chaos.”

The Supreme Court also hoped that the protesters at Shaheen Bagh will pay heed to it and vacate the road. “We expressed our opinion about what we want to do. We are hopeful that reason will prevail on them. It is not a pleasant task but we have taken up the task to resolve it.”

The Apex Court made all these observations while hearing a PIL filed by advocate Amit Sahni and BJP leader Nand Kishore Garg seeking a direction to the police to remove the protesters who have been blocking the flow of traffic since December 15- the day on which they began protesting against the Citizenship law.

The amended law seeks to grant citizenship to persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Critics say that the law strikes at the secular character of the Constitution and that it should be withdrawn.

(With inputs from agencies)