On 30th December, Fatima Shaikh Study Circle protested at Ambedkar Chowk, Mumbra Police Station (Thane District, Maharashtra) against the brutal Lathi Charge on BPSC aspirants and in solidarity with their ongoing struggle for the Re Exam. After the protest, when the organizers went to submit a memorandum of demands to the Senior Inspector, he outrightly refused to receive it, and rather went on to belittle the students for nearly exercising their democratic right to protest. Although prior permission for the protest was taken, FIRs have been registered against Yash Choube, Manohar Chavan and Osama Rawal under Section 223 and 126(2) of Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita and 37(3) and 135 of the Maharashtra Police Act,1951. The democratic content of a society should be judged by the freedom of citizens to exercise their democratic right to protest against the anti-people policies and actions of the state. We have been witnessing an increasing attack on this fundamental right, even as the central and state governments as well as the Godi media keep on parroting India as being the “world’s largest democracy”. In content this bourgeois democracy has been hallowed and what remains is only the shell/ form of the parliamentary system. While students and activists are facing repression by the state for speaking up against casteism, unemployment and paper leaks, communal forces are being given complete protection by the state authorities to spew their venomous hate speeches in their rallies. This organized stifling of democratic voices is condemnable. We urge all progressive citizens to join in our struggle to protect our democratic right to protest.
Naujawan Bharat Sabha condemns criminalization of dissent and stands in solidarity with the members of Fatima Shaikh Study Circle.
