A day after a 2-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court appointed Sanjay Hedge and Sadhana Ramachandran as ‘interlocutors’ to convince the Shaheen Bagh protestors to shift their demonstration to an alternate site, the protestors have said that it would weaken their movement.
As per a New Indian Express report, on being asked about the traffic inconvenience caused to people, an IIT Delhi student Asif Mujtaba said that the road blockade was a pressure tactic. He added that the protestors could open up one side of the road while continuing their sit-in protest on the other side. Asif expressed his delight over the fact that the apex court acknowledged their ‘right to protest.’
He claimed, “There is a chance that the protesters reach a consensus with the court-appointed interlocutors”. Asif, however, hit out at that the Delhi police for their disapproval of the use of women and children as shields in Shaheen Bagh. He, however, also stated that the protestors may oblige if the Supreme Court orders them to shift to an alternative location.
The report quoted another protestor, Nadeem Khan, saying that the pressure tactic would fail if they relocated to an alternative site.
“The main reason for blocking the road was to pressure the government but now if we go to an irrelevant place, I am not sure whether we could insist on our demands with the same thrust or not,” Nadeem was quoted saying in the NIE report.
Nadeem complained that the Supreme Court should have asked the BJP-led-government to talk to protestors instead of telling the peaceful protestors to shift. The petitions to clear Shaheen Bagh and Kalindi Kunj were filed by lawyer and activist Amit Sahni and BJP leader Nand Kishore Garg.
The Shaheen Bagh sit-in protests were orchestrated after violent protests by Muslim mobs across the country that went on vandalising public properties was widely condemned by the media and the public. The demonstration that is premised on Islamic supremacy and has encouraged blatant Hinduphobia has exceeded 2 months now.
The highway connecting Faridabad- Delhi- Noida had been blocked by the protestors, leading to traffic woes and forcing locals to protest against them. A 4-month old child had died during these protests while several journalists had been manhandled while reporting on the Anti-CAA protests in the area.