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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Capital Chaos

The shocking violence that occurred during the protests led by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), which left 118 policemen injured in Delhi, raises an uncomfortable question: why does the national capital repeatedly become the stage for protest movements that cross the line from dissent into disorder? When a demonstration against educational reforms results in scores of injured policemen, the issue becomes a serious question of public order and accountability. The geography of this violence is...

Capital Chaos

The shocking violence that occurred during the protests led by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), which left 118 policemen injured in Delhi, raises an uncomfortable question: why does the national capital repeatedly become the stage for protest movements that cross the line from dissent into disorder? When a demonstration against educational reforms results in scores of injured policemen, the issue becomes a serious question of public order and accountability. The geography of this violence is hardly accidental. Delhi has long served as the grand amphitheatre for India’s political performative class - the ‘Cadillac left-liberals’ who despise Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with an intensity that outstrips their electoral relevance. In the capital, protests are not merely expressions of grievance but are status symbols. Supported by a sympathising ecosystem of urban intellectuals, activist-lawyers, and media enablers, these movements operate under an implicit guarantee of soft handling. Outrage that would draw harsh crackdowns in any state capital is treated in Delhi as a vibrant exercise in civil society. By dithering on firm legal action against key conspirators and their shadowy handlers and focusing instead on standard, low-level FIRs against the front-line stone-pelters, the government hands an ideological victory to the agitators. It broadcasts a message of vulnerability. The troubling question is why protests in Delhi repeatedly escalate into such clashes. The responsibility cannot end with statements of regret after violence has occurred. Those who organise, finance or encourage unlawful actions must face scrutiny under the law. The government’s response matters enormously here. If it appears hesitant to pursue those who may have planned, encouraged or financed unlawful actions, it creates the perception that political pressure can dilute legal consequences and that disorder in the capital can be an effective instrument of mobilisation. That perception is corrosive. A state that hesitates to enforce the law consistently eventually encourages those willing to test its limits. The police, meanwhile, cannot be treated as expendable symbols of state authority. The 118 personnel injured during the clashes were not faceless instruments of power. They were citizens carrying out one of the most difficult constitutional responsibilities of maintaining order amid political conflict. Assaulting them is an attack on the very institution responsible for protecting democratic freedoms. India’s democracy is robust enough to accommodate fierce disagreement. But democracy does not mean a permanent licence for street confrontation. Delhi has witnessed too many moments of such anarchist protests under the garb of liberality. The capital of the Indian Republic cannot become the capital of impunity. The rule of law must apply equally to politicians as well as ‘activists’ who break the law in seeking to garner public attention.

BMC auctioning three land parcels to raise funds, says Aaditya

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

Aaditya

Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Thursday alleged Mumbai’s civic body had decided to auction three land parcels to raise funds and make up for the “loot” of the metropolis by the Eknath Shinde government.


The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which is being run by an administrator now, has decided to auction the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Mandi (Market), the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Malabar Hill Receiving Station and the Worli Asphalt Plant, Thackeray pointed out.


“The sale of Mumbai is being done by the Eknath Shinde regime to benefit its favourite builders and contractors,” he alleged.


A criminal investigation will be conducted into the matter after the Maha Vikas Aghadi government comes to power, Thackeray added.


“So on one end, they looted the BMC and Mumbai and gave the money to their favourite contractors. Now, by auctioning these iconic and important land parcels, the BMC will be left without both funds and plots,” the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former state minister claimed.


When Shiv Sena started controlling the BMC in 1997, its finances were in deficit but by 2022 his party turned around the fiscal health of the civic body, Thackeray said.


Alleging that the Shinde government wants to drive Kolis and fisherfolk out of Mumbai, he said, “We will oppose this. It has to remain and be made into a fish market, and (should be) in the ownership of the BMC.”


Aaditya puppet for urban naxals: Shelar

Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP ) Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar has called Uddhav Thackeray’s son and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray as a puppet for urban naxals after former’s comments on the Dharavi Redevelopment project and has also challenged him for a debate.

Ashish Shelar said that the project is a necessity and a priority project, adding that Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Congressleader Varsha Gaikwad are peddling lies.

Aaditya Thackeray seems to have become the spokesperson of urban Naxals. Without studying the subject (Dharavi) in detail, Aaditya Thackeray is speaking like an ignorant. I have seen that these people have been trying to set a narrative regarding Dharavi and the re-development work,” Ashish Shelar said.

He challenged Aaditya Thackeray and Varsha Gaikwad in a debate on the Dharavi Redevelopment Project.

“Uddhav ji and the people of his party – Aaditya Thackeray and Varsha Gaikwad have started this false narrative regarding Dharavi. I openly challenge Aaditya for a debate. I want to ask him that 70 per cent of the homes in the Dharavi Redevelopment Project will go to Marathi people, Muslims and Dalits. It is their rightful home, so why are they putting roadblocks by creating a false narrative?”

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