- 1 day ago
A debate unfolds over the flash youth protests in Delhi following the denotification of Jantar Mantar as a designated protest venue. Meher Pasricha, national spokesperson of the Cockroach Janata Party, defends the demonstration of national symbols in public spaces, criticising the administration's actions as an arbitrary suppression of dissent: 'It's just a systematic dismantling of protest and dissent in itself.' Varun Chaudhary, AICC co-in charge and former national president of the NSUI, condemns the detention of student activists and asserts that the right to peaceful assembly is protected under the Constitution. Meanwhile, Shravan B Raj, National Secretary of the ABVP, counters that multi-outfit street mobilisations are causing public disruption and anarchy, urging student groups not to derail youth or target democratic institutions. The panel examines the legal implications under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, the role of opposition political figures, and the accountability of the Election Commission.
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00:00Okay, now what I'm going to do is bring student leaders together
00:03because these flash protests that you're seeing are being now led by youth.
00:08And I want to raise some questions.
00:10Will the unity of this Kokrut Janata Party with the Congress last?
00:14Are these flash protests to be seen as reasonable?
00:17Are they justifiable?
00:19And are the arrests of Gen Z protesters justified in any way sending them to Tihar?
00:25Joining me now is Meher Pasricha, National Spokesperson of the Kokrut Janata Party.
00:31Shravan B. Raj is National Secretary, ABVP.
00:34And Varun Chaudhary is AICC Co-Incharge and former National President of the NSUI.
00:40Good to have all of you on the show.
00:42I want to come to you, Meher, first.
00:44You see, there were clear rules that Jantar Mantar has been denotified as a protest site.
00:49Yet, your leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurabh went there in the morning yesterday chanting slogans.
00:55The police says this was a violation of the rules.
00:58They have gone by the BNSS segments, which clearly say that you cannot have any kind of protest, they say,
01:05at Jantar Mantar.
01:06Therefore, they had to be arrested, particularly since they had signed a bail bond just a few days ago,
01:13saying, or a shorty saying that they will not engage in any activities that will disrupt peace.
01:21Thank you, Rajdeep.
01:23Yes, sure.
01:24I think, Rajdeep, the way we simply see it is that there was an arbitrary denotification of Jantar Mantar.
01:32Absolutely arbitrary.
01:33That came literally 30 minutes after we visit the police station to ask for the protest site.
01:39And therefore, it becomes a public ground.
01:41And it becomes okay for someone to use that public ground to show the national flag and then to say
01:48Bharat Matar ki Jair.
01:50Truly, that was what was happening there.
01:52And then we sort of made Central Delhi this fortress.
01:56And so, simply, if a group of people are occupying a public space and raising flags, what is the problem
02:05with that?
02:06The problem, they say, is that this was not just a simple Bharat Matar ki Jair and raising flags.
02:12It was deliberately provocative to suggest that Jantar Mantar cannot be denotified in this manner.
02:19The government claims, once we've denotified it, once we've applied the relevant sections of BNSS, you cannot go there.
02:29And to that, Rajdeep, yes, it was provocative.
02:32Simply the same way that it has been provocative that the protest site was denotified in this arbitrary fashion.
02:39That we don't know what stakeholders were consulted, what views were taken into consideration for this denotification.
02:49And we also know the history of moving protest sites further and further away from the seat of government.
02:55There were various protest sites notified along with this order.
02:59And they are 10 kilometers away, 20 kilometers away.
03:02And it's just a systematic dismantling of protest and dissent in itself.
03:11Varun Chaudhary, interestingly, Rahul Gandhi, among those, without naming the CJP, he said,
03:16is it a crime to shout Bharat Matar ki Jair and wave the tricolor at Jantar Mantar?
03:22Are we seeing the first signs that the Congress wants to reach out to the CJP?
03:27We were told even yesterday at Rahul Gandhi's high tea, there was an attempt made to get the CJP to
03:33have a presence.
03:33Is the Congress comfortable with joining hands with the Kokhrun Jantar Party?
03:38See, Rajdeep, Rahul Ji clearly says from day one.
03:42Rahul Ji is L.O.P. in the whole country, India.
03:46Leader of the opposition is the...
03:47There was no other protest.
03:49And I would like to talk to you, but when I wrote you once again, I would like to write
03:52you once again.
03:53So when there were protests in 2012, there were protests in Mrs. Gandhi's house.
03:57There were protests in Raul Gandhi's house, there were students in UPSC.
04:00There were protests in Delhi when the UPSC was in Delhi when there was a rape case, there were protests
04:04in Mrs. Gandhi's house.
04:08They were there because of the protests in the house, there was protests in the house.
04:14They were there because of the protests in the house, they were there because there were three or four activists
04:18in the house where they protested.
04:21They were illegally detained and put in jail.
04:24So Rahul Ji clearly said that the constitutional rule will break the Constitution.
04:28Our right to freedom is our constitutional rule.
04:34Do you have a common, do you have a common, do you have a common cause, do you have a
04:42common cause with the Kokhrush Janta party, are you on the same platform?
04:48We have a clearly common cause that right to freedom. We have a clearly common cause that we are talking
04:53about.
04:54And it might be, in the future, that BJP or someone's son of a minister to protect the constitution, they
05:00might be, they are LOP, they will say, you are right, you are right.
05:04So the reality is, I think, as I talk about, I openly say that some of my family members are
05:10part in the first time in the Supreme Court.
05:13So they didn't come in the Congress party or not, so they wanted to be free and free elections in
05:18the country.
05:19So there are some people whose intent is clear, they are political parties and institutions.
05:22So these three people, Sourav Das and Lanka, who have been sent to jail, they say that they are illegal.
05:32They don't want to put in jail, they don't want to be peaceful, they don't want to protest.
05:35So that's what Aul Ji has done.
05:36Tomorrow, there will be anyone else.
05:37Might be BJP.
05:38And I will tell you that if you talk about Jantramat, if you talk about the Supreme Court,
05:42then some senior police officers have to protest.
05:45They themselves know that they have to save the election commission.
05:47So the L.O.P. Rahul Gandhi Ji, they are the country of India.
05:52They are the Congress secondary, they are the country of the L.O.P.
05:54And they have clearly said in their tweets, they have clearly supported.
05:57And this is the first time, every time.
05:59Right.
05:59I've heard you.
06:01Varun, I've heard you.
06:02Varun, I've heard you.
06:03Yeah.
06:05Shravan Raj, National Secretary, ABVP.
06:08How do you see these protests, flash protests that in a way in defiance?
06:14One day it's the CJP, one day it's the left, one day it's the NSUI.
06:17All of them are coming together.
06:19Do you feel that groups like the ABVP are losing out?
06:24Because these are now, these three groups, the left, the CJP and the NSUI are occupying
06:31that entire space of these flash protests.
06:35No, never.
06:36This can be considered just as a seasoned protest by the seasoned politicians of the country.
06:42If you are seeing the history of these recent Jandarmander 1 and the 2.0 protests,
06:48we can see an rise of the alternative politics in the country, a group of organizations,
06:53because single-handedly they will fail to mobilize people.
06:57So that's why 20, 30, 40, hundreds of organizations coming together and creating anarchy in the streets.
07:03Because here we can see a clear policy of subversion of democracy through democratic means.
07:10Protests being a democratic way of raising the voice to the concerned authority,
07:14these voices have been misused.
07:17Youth have been derailed in a negative way by the opposition.
07:22That can be visible from the recent protests.
07:25And Jandarmander, which can be considered as a venue where we can gather only 3,000 to 5,000 people.
07:32And actually Congress and the opposition should be, Congress, CJP, all these organizations should be happy
07:39that now they have a hope to do protests in the Ramlila Maidan.
07:43Let them show the power because these are the people, right?
07:46In a tweet they can gather millions of youth in the country, in the streets.
07:50They should be proud to gather five or six lakhs people in the Burari ground.
07:55So are you saying the ABVP has no problem if student protesters are arrested, if they are taken to Tihad
08:03jail?
08:04You have no problem? ABVP believes that the government is doing the right thing?
08:09See, even many states like in Telangana, Karnadaga, Kerala,
08:14Vidyarthi Parishad used to do protests across the street.
08:17Our Karyagarthas were taken into custody, brutally latishized by the police.
08:21Water cannons have been used.
08:23Continuous violence has been unleashed by the government in these states against Vidyarthi Parishad Karyagarthas.
08:29Our people were sent for jail for 14 days, remanded. Judicial custody, they were kept as jail.
08:35At the time, all these opposition were keeping quiet.
08:38And one more thing to add, people, student activists should not be sent to jail.
08:42That's the… and student should not be lapisar.
08:46Student should not be manhandled by any of the authorities.
08:49That's the stand ABVP believes.
08:51But when someone is creating anarchy in the street,
08:54when someone is disrupting…
08:55What is your definition of anarchy?
08:57What is your definition of anarchy, Shravan Raj?
09:01What is your definition of anarchy?
09:03Mr. Rajdeep, you haven't witnessed what is anarchy in the streets of Delhi?
09:07When the people were…
09:08When the common police personates were attacked from the…
09:12Normal shops were destroyed in the Jandarmandar 1.
09:16We haven't seen through the VDS when the cars were broken,
09:20when the stones were thrown at the people.
09:23And even at the time, common students were in the street.
09:25And they were faced many attacks.
09:27Even your fellow journalists from different media houses
09:30faced open threats and harassment by these protesters.
09:34This…
09:35Media…
09:36Media…
09:37Sir, I…
09:38On the last weekend, I can tell you the media has been targeted by the police,
09:42above all else, on Saturday and Sunday.
09:44But I want to bring Meher in.
09:46You see, this point is going to be raised again and again.
09:48Now we are told Abhijit Dipke is planning a Tiranga march on the 16th, on Friday.
09:53So the impression is that the Kaukrut Janata Party is determined to hit the streets day after day
09:59and the BJP is going to go or the ABVP is going to say this is anarchy.
10:03You are spreading anarchy.
10:04How do you respond to what Shravan says instead of the student bodies are now making this protest anarchic?
10:13Yeah, I actually love that you brought that up Shravan because I have been wanting to address this point.
10:20English, please.
10:25English, please.
10:27If we wanted to do anarchy, if this was the purpose, then why would we ask the leaders to speak?
10:35Why would we ask them to hold a press conference?
10:37Why would we engage in dialogue?
10:39Why would we put all those things forward?
10:41It's not that everyone wants to come out on the streets.
10:44People have places to be and do things.
10:46But when the government completely puts a stop, the ECI has cancelled all public appearances after the express report has
10:57come out.
10:58How do you react to that?
11:00The anarchy thing that is always put on CJP that we're trying to spread anarchy.
11:05I want to ask you.
11:06I want to ask BJP.
11:08I want to ask the election commission.
11:10Why have you not spoken to the people yet?
11:13We don't need to come to the streets then.
11:16What are you calling for?
11:17You're saying you want the election commissioners to come out in public, make their stand clear, speak to the people
11:24of this country and you will stop these protests?
11:26Because you all seem to want the resignation.
11:28No, no.
11:28You all seem to want the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar.
11:31Nothing short of that.
11:32You all are saying we will carry on these protests till Gyanesh Kumar resigns.
11:37Right.
11:38Right.
11:38So, this is what a democracy is, right?
11:40Like, there is discussion and dissent and there is dialogue.
11:44If the election commission has not appeared once, the three of them together in the public eye, let them take
11:50questions from the public.
11:51Let them take questions from the public.
11:53Like, let us attack Gyanesh Kumar.
11:56Let him take it.
11:56Let's see what he has to say.
11:58Shravan, you want to respond to that?
12:00You know, there will be those also who will say we have a right to protest.
12:04I mean, the government of the day cannot decide suddenly overnight, Jantar Mantar, there will be no protest.
12:09It seems this government is unnerved by these young protestors.
12:14That the young protestors, these flash protests, the government doesn't know how to handle it.
12:19See, everyone has the right to protest democratically in a peaceful manner in a democratic country like India.
12:27But see, at the same time, I would like to request Abjit Deepkay, CJP representative, Congress representative and all the
12:34people who demonstrate the protest to go outside JNU and hold a protest against the accused of sexual assault.
12:43I am requesting them because they are carrying Tiranga.
12:46I am very happy that the CJP members who, when we celebrate Independence Day, when we celebrate Republic Day, they
12:56will talk against the nation.
12:58That nation is under scrutiny.
13:00There is no freedom.
13:01But I am very happy they are taking Indian flags and they are hailing the slogans of Bharat Madhaki Jai
13:08and Vande Madhra.
13:09But at the same time, my appeal, just extend your protest.
13:13You are protesting in Jandar Mantar, right? It's only 10 to 14 kilometers away.
13:17Jawaharlal Nehru University, carry your, move your protest towards that venue.
13:21At least show solidarity to ABVP, Karigartas who are protesting to take an action against the professor who got dismissed.
13:29Okay, so you want the CJP NSUI to go to JNU and protest against the Congress MP, Bimal Aiko Jam,
13:37accused of sexual harassment.
13:38They want you to join their protest against the CEC.
13:42I mean, will you join their protest against the Chief Election Commissioner?
13:45They want you to protest against him as well. Will you join?
13:48See, we are not here to do a protest based on a mere propaganda smear campaign by Mr. Rahul Gandhi.
13:56And we don't believe in a single news bureau's report, which we can't consider it as an authentic way.
14:04Let the evidence come. Even the Supreme Court has asked Mr. Rahul Gandhi to come up with the proper documents,
14:10right, while filing the appeal.
14:12Okay.
14:13So that's how. It's just a smear campaign. At first it was the EVM machine, it was the issue.
14:20Then it turned into the illegal voters, it was the issue. And it has turned now to the election commission.
14:26We can see a structured manner in which our institutions are being targeted. When the Article 370 was scrapped, when
14:34there were, at the time it was the Indian Army, were the Congress and the left organization raised a concern
14:41about.
14:42Then it again comes to the Constitution. Then it comes to the question of the democracy. Finally, the election commission
14:49and what not. You have seen the Congress members of Kerala tweeted, why not let the Chief Justice of India
14:56resign?
14:57Okay. You know, I'm hearing different viewpoints. I appreciate all of you joining us. You are all young voices. And
15:06you are the ones who are now occupying the streets in parts of the national capital. Good to have all
15:11three of you and hearing your distinct voices.