Public Interest Litigation (PIL) which so far has been most effective instrument for a dissenter to register his disagreement to consent. Is ironically behind used by the supporters the Modi government to criminalise the dissenters and urge upon the judiciary to punish them on the ground that they were working against the nation and creating hindrance in the society
On Friday a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court seeking removal of protestors from Delhi borders. The petitioner a law student from Delhi Rishabh Sharma was so pained at the miseries of the Delhites that he moved the court seeking directions for the authority concerned to open all borders of Delhi.
The PIL states that it is necessary to remove the gathering as it is blocking the roads for all emergency/medical services that are required to be supplied within Delhi to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Besides, several patients frequently travel to Delhi from different states for treatment in government hospitals.
In the Shaheen Bagh case too, a similar request was made to the Supreme Court and the court readily obliged the petitioner. The petition filed by advocate Om Prakash Parihar had mentioned that it is “necessary to remove the gathering” as the protest is posing hurdles for accessing emergency medical services needed to curb the spread of COVID-19 and to attend to patients in need of medical attention.
The plea further stated that life of lakh of people protesting at Delhi borders is at immediate threat “since the virus is very contagious and if by chance this coronavirus disease takes the shape of community spread, it will cause a havoc in the country.”
It is worth mentioning that even after the forceful eviction of agitating women’s of Shaheen Bagh at the direction of the Supreme Court , the Modi government and the Kejriwal government completely failed to check the spike of the corona. What was the most unfortunate aspect of the entire game played at that time was apex court allowed itself to be used by the vested interests. The court issued many guidelines but both the governments failed to implement them.
At that time too the lawyer had argued that majority of the protestors are elderly people who were vulnerable to the. Once again Sharma is playing the same card that corona is a deadly virus, and it is in their best interest to completely avoid such mass gatherings.
The PIL is being used by the BJP supporters to remove the farmers, who are protesting against the recently passed Farm Acts, from the Delhi-NCR borders. With the government refusing to concede to their demands, they have made their intentions clear of further intensifying their agitation. In this backdrop the government was finding it a tough proposition to physically evict them. The only best course open for it is the judicial intervention and order. It is to be taken note of that thousand of local residents near the borders are feedings lakhs of the farmers. If they had any reservation or would have been against the protestors, they would not taken up this noble task.
The plea demands that protesters be shifted to some other place and the Delhi borders, which have been blocked due to the protests, be reopened. It further states that social distancing and mask wearing protocol must be implemented among the protest groups.
In fact the Union government had already tried to entrap them by offering to hold their protest as a park identified by it inside Delhi. But the farmers had refused to be laid in the trap. Ass the intentions of Modi government is not honest, they are keeping out of Delhi.
The petitioner is biased against the agitators is clear from the drafting of the PIL; “Though the Police has allotted a dedicated place for the protestors to protest peacefully, but the protestors are not shifting/moving to the allotted place and in order to create trouble for the commuters they have blocked the borders. Furthermore, owing to their large number of protestors, the police is not able to control such a large gathering”. The fact is till today during the eleven days of the agitation, not a single case of violence or any untoward incident has been reported.
Once the matter comes up before the Supreme Court, it is not clear what the view will be.. But it must ask the Modi government why it has not made any serious attempt to solve the crisis. Why it resorted to the tactics of delaying? Whose interest was it trying to protect? The government would present the agitators as dissenters. Since the farmers have refused to give their consent to the laws, the BJP and its supporters are branding them anti nationals and invoke legal action. It is unfortunate that in recent times the democracies have no language to understand a dissenter in any manner except as a criminal. It is really sad that government has developed the habit of listening to the voice of consent only and a dissent is nothing but crime, threat to the government.
People usually do not come out on the streets. It is only after all options are exhausted they come to street to protest, as has been in the case of farmers. The farmers have been protesting against the three laws for last four months. The Modi government did no listen. They described the movement as Punjab centric. Now it has been testing their patience and perseverance by refusing to agree. Ironically it is argued that dissent in a self-rule is not suited. Dissent is to be used against the colonial rule. But when the native government starts behaving like an alien and colonial rulers what the people should do? Do they allow to be humiliated, assaulted and punished?
What is happening in the case of farm laws is Narendra Modi has been humiliating and whipping the farmers to safe the interests of his corporate friends. This is also evident from the failure of his ministers who are engaged in negotiations with the farmers to commit. The farmers have called Bharat Bandh on December8 and that has the support of all the leading opposition political parties. The NDA government has to agree to an amicable solution to farmers demands at the proposed meeting on December 9 if the Government has any care for the rural economy of the country at this time of crisis. Any other course to break the farmers movement either through BJP muscle power or through Court intervention, will be disastrous for the future of India. (IPA Service)