"Dear protesters, don't protest publicly; do it mouth to mouth!" Mumbai Police advices Churchgate Protesters
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Kamayani <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 12:50 PM Subject: [humanrights-movement:2856] "Don’t Protest in Public, Protest ‘Mouth-to-Mouth'" - Cops to Protesters in Churchgate, Mumbai To: You wouldn’t think that one would have to protest to have the right to protest reinstated in a ‘DEMOCRACY’. Yet, this satire is exactly what played out in Churchgate on the evening of the 16th Aug, 2010. Close to 40 odd activists gathered with posters and leaflets against there not being any protest space in cities to ‘spontaneously’ and peacefully protest against something you thought was wrong. The only place you can do that in Mumbai, is Azad maidan (unless of course you art part of some hooligan group of the country like any of its political party, Shiv Sena, MNS etc. then the police will give you protection for your ‘spontaneous’ protest). But the main intention of spontaneous protest is to educate the random populace and generate sympathy in them. If you have been to Azad maidan, you’d know that besides the occasional stray cats, dogs, cows and sometimes goats and the regular lovers and players, there’s hardly anyone there. So, protesting there is like preaching the converted. You might as well scream slogans inside your stingy Mumbai houses. There were many spaces once upon a time for spontaneous protests. But these days, all the spaces are encroached upon by a corporate-govt. nexus which does not want any opposition to their corruption and human-rights abuse. And, they use police force to prevent protests which should be the cornerstone of democracy. Hence this ‘satirical’ protest against clampdown on protest was no different, and the police came around 15 minutes from the time these activists stood outside the eastern side of Churchgate station. A very interesting, and often hilarious discussion followed, where one policeman asked the activists to stop sloganeering and spread the message ‘mouth-to-mouth’ (probably he meant word-of-mouth)… wonder if the policeman would want the same himself ;). Though two vans were ready to take the protestors away, by the end the situation diffused and the police ‘let’ everyone go. Before they did, they talked about their own problems and how there is no one to take up the cause of their own rights. The activists promised that their rights would be taken up if they ever demanded, numbers were exchanged, everyone laughed, had a good and thankfully no ‘mouth-to-mouth’ time and went away. For those of you who know Marathi, the hilarity of it all, would only be multiplied. Enjoy. This might seem a trivial issue… but protest spaces all across the country are dying out, no wonder democracy in the nation is often such a sham… to join the struggle to protect protest spaces, write to [email protected]. Video 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiYx33cflJE Video 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BFXFH7SGS8 Video 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHnn1wSzvSY -- Adv Kamayani Bali Mahabal +919820749204 skype-lawyercumactivist "After a war, the silencing of arms is not enough. Peace means respecting all rights. You can’t respect one of them and violate the others. When a society doesn’t respect the rights of its citizens, it undermines peace and leads it back to war.” -- Maria Julia Hernandez www.otherindia.org www.binayaksen.net www.phm-india.org www.phmovement.org www.ifhhro.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en. -- You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole. -AMBEDKAR http://venukm.blogspot.com http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
