Bengaluru: Karnataka home minister Priyank Kharge and chief minister DK Shivakumar Tuesday reiterated that peaceful protest is fundamental to democracy and promised a review of police action against anti-SIR demonstrators in Bengaluru.Activists, however, said assurances were not enough and demanded withdrawal of the police licensing order that restricts all protests in the city to Freedom Park. They also sought restoration of the 2009 order governing assemblies and processions.The demand follows Monday’s detention of protesters who had gathered near KR Circle to march to the chief electoral officer’s office against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Police detained them after they refused to move to Freedom Park, while photojournalists covering the action were allegedly manhandled.While Kharge said he had instructed the police to ensure peaceful demonstrations were not disrupted, Shivakumar assured he had sought a full report on the circumstances leading to the police action and warned that accountability would be fixed if there had been unnecessary or excessive use of force.“The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy. We cannot demand that right for ourselves in Delhi and deny it to others in Bengaluru,” Shivakumar said, adding that there would be “no double standards”. He, along with Kharge, was in Delhi Monday to be part of anti-SIR protests.Activists welcomed the assurances, but said the govt must address the restrictions.“The Licensing Order, 2021, restricting protests to Freedom Park must be withdrawn. Protests cannot be caged in Freedom Park; holding placards and shouting slogans cannot be criminalised; peaceful marches cannot be met with police violence,” advocate and activist Clifton Rozario said.He added police power could not be used against legitimate struggles in defence of the Constitution.My Vote, My Right, which had organised Monday’s protest march, welcomed Kharge’s decision, but urged the govt to withdraw the 2021 licensing order and restore the “2009 assemblies order” instead.The organisation also questioned Shivakumar over what it saw as a contradiction between his participation in a protest in Delhi and the action against demonstrators in Bengaluru, asking: “One law for you, one law for us — why?”A woman protester who was dragged away by police Monday said restricting demonstrations to Freedom Park curtailed citizens’ rights. “This rule is what allows the police to deem any protest outside the said venue illegitimate,” she said.Activists of the Horatada Hakkigagi Janandolana said a protest over a neighbourhood grievance loses its relevance when residents must travel to a central venue to be heard.Bengaluru police commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh said KR Circle was a heavily congested junction and police had asked protesters to move to Freedom Park. He said the protesters refused to budge and blocked the road, following which, police removed the blockade and made preventive arrests.Describing the scuffle involving protesters, police and media personnel as unintentional, he said officers had been instructed to exercise utmost caution in dealing with the situation.
