Rebellion is always in the air. Delhi's Jantar Mantar provides ample space and a platform to any and everyone who has something to protest about. A list of those occupying the grounds this year.
They sow the seeds of rebellion at Jantar Mantar, and wait in quiet anticipation for it to yield fruit. Day after day, they wait under the shade of their tents, camped side by side on either side of the long stretch of road. Asaram Bapu’s devotees are particularly patient. After all, they have been waiting eight hundred and fifty five days for his release. Some protests, however, have started more recently. For instance, the Second Freedom Fighters arrived on January 15, 2016; the beefed-up wrestlers from Freak Fighter Wrestling were agitating for one day only. But that’s not the end of it, folks. Let us take you through the list of protests that are currently underway at Jantar Mantar.
Asaram Bapu
In godman they trust. Asaram Bapu, currently lodged in prison, an accused in multiple charges of rape, has a stranglehold over his followers. I walked up to their tent, on day 855, to have a word with the group, only to find them surrendered to prayer. The fifty odd men and women, of all ages, were singing bhajans, performing pujas and were in a general state of hyper devotion. They believe that Hindu saints in India were being systematically targeted and demanded that Asaram be set free.
A Rape in Punjab
JK has accused a senior officer in the Punjab police force of raping her at his residence in 2010. When I walked into her tent, she invited me to take a seat and volunteered her story. She told me how she went to see the officer to press charges against a debtor who failed to return a sum of Rs 40,000. She was then allegedly locked in and raped. When no action was taken against her rapist, she arrived at Jantar Mantar on December 12, 2013. As I was leaving, a protestor from a neighbouring tent arrived and casually took a seat. She started a loud rant with him against the news magazine Tehelka for printing lies about her. I was clearly meant to overhear the protestations. As it turns out, after investigating her case,Tehelka found several inconsistencies in her story. JK, closing in on 800 days at Jantar Mantar, maintains that she would protest until her alleged rapist is behind bars. So are we dealing with a dirty cop or a dirty lie? We will not know just yet.
One Rank, One Pension
One of the armed forces’ special powers is to draw the sympathy of the nation when they raise a grievance. However, on day 216 of the One Rank One Pension (OROP) protests, the ex-servicemen were far from the eye of the media. They are on a relay hunger strike to protest perceived shortcomings in the pension scheme. They believe that the scheme in its present form is bound to disturb the hierarchical pension for officers in the future.
Sant Rampal
Here’s another sant with no shortage of pals in the world. In November, 2014, when the police attempted to arrest Rampal in connection with a contempt of court hearing, 15,000 devotees formed a human shield around him. In the ensuing chaos, six people, including an infant, were killed. Since then, Rampal has been lodged in prison. On September 16, 2015, his followers came to Jantar Mantar, alleging that Arya Samajists, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Baba Ramdev had conspired to send him to jail. On Facebook, there are several pages alleging that judges and cops in the case have all been bought. They want the court proceedings to be video recorded and a fair CBI probe to find the truth.
Khap land grab
A group of Dalits from Bhagana, Haryana, arrived at Jantar Mantar way back in May, 2012. The Khaps, notorious for their diktats, have allegedly banished the group from their village. But not before grabbing 280 acres of their land. When they lodged a complaint, the Khaps ordered a social boycott on them, virtually sending them to exile overnight. Here, in Jantar Mantar, armed with humble petitions, they wait for justice.
All India Ordnance Factory ex-trade Apprentice Association
The group comprises ex-trade apprentices from several Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) learning institutes. “We have been trained for three years but we haven’t been employed. Some people have been training for a decade but there’s no job for them,” says Prashant Kumar Choudhary. They arrived at Jantar Mantar on December 1, 2015. They bear letters from the defence ministry stating that ex-trade apprentices should be recruited as industrial cadre by ordnance and ordnance equipment factories. However, they allege nobody has paid heed to these recommendations. The trainees are getting older but their future is in limbo. He warns that the government is choosing to play with fire because the protestors are all trained to make bullets and explosives and they could choose the path of violence just as easily. This could escalate quickly, folks!
Unfair Dismissal of PBOR ranks
The father-son protest stands in stark contrast to OROP, which has a large stage, several microphones and a large audience. Subedar Nagendra Prasad, 77, and his son Sepoy Deepak Badakoti, 49, are protesting Deepak’s dismissal from service without a court martial. The duo sit in a tiny, dismal tent, some newspapers in the backdrop, their meagre belongings bundled in the corner. Casting an uneasy eye on the OROP protests, they complained about the mounting expenses they had to bear. The cost of renting the tent for a day was Rs. 1000. It was already the 59th day of protest and things weren’t improving. The aging father had sold his land to pay for the sit-in at Jantar Mantar. When asked about their food, Deepak tells me that they cooked it behind their tent.
Deepak Badakoti alleges that he lost an eye to an improvised explosive device, but was dismissed without a fair hearing when he refused to obey an order that would cause more damage to his eyes. He ruminates about the laws in the Army Act and how unfair it was to persons below officer rank (PBOR). He points out Section 80 of the Army Act. This act applies only to PBORs and prescribes punishments, including military custody, extra duties, fines or reduction to a lower grade of pay, all for the same crime. He believes that the officers were using this act to unjustly punish jawans. “OROP gets the limelight, but when will they remove this act?” he asks. I couldn’t answer that one just yet.
Nose-blowing-on-Indian flag incident
Wrestling ‘snot fake after all. Sachin Aadvanshi, a wrestler with “Freak Fighter Wrestling”, led the protest against World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE as it more widely known, for insulting the Indian flag in the year 2000. Kurt Angle, wrestler and Olympic gold medallist, of the WWE blew his nose on the flag because an Indian wrestler called Tiger Ali Singh, provoked him on stage.
The protest reached Jantar Mantar on January 14, 2016 because WWE supposedly did not tour India since the incident. However, a quick search showed that WWE did indeed tour India in the year 2002 and the original incident occurred in the year 1999, not 2000. Of course, precise numbers are not very important to the freak fighters. In fact, when I logged in to their website, I read that the freak fighters had “organised three successful events in New Delhi in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014”. That was all I needed to know, really. Anyway, the agitation culminated the following day at the Indira Gandhi Stadium, where the WWE was scheduled to host an event. On January 15, 2016, WWE apologised for the incident and the three day protest came to an end.
Second Freedom Fighters
Two is company, three is media coverage. Two members from a group known as the Second Freedom Fighters were camped in a tiny tent, protesting corruption in Odisha. Their protest started on January 13, 2016. Their demands seemed a little vague at first because they told me they planned to write to the President/Prime Minister to replace corrupt bureaucrats, none of whom were named. They told me they had a large following in Odisha, but had failed to gather troops in Delhi. Their tent was bare, with a couple of mattresses stacked in a corner, along with their belongings. They told me that they went to the nearby Gurudwara for a meal of roti and dal. At a moment’s notice, they, like every other camp, pulled out a bundle of print-outs listing out their causes.
Orange, white and yellow paper, reams of them, are hastily stapled together and handed to me. When prodded a little more, they divulge some details about their fight. They were standing up for the ten lakh investors who were swindled out of their money in the 2013 chit-fund scam by Seashore group, Saradha group and the Rose Valley Group, to name a few. They want the money returned to the victims as quickly as possible. They plan to group their social cells together to form a political organ in the near future. On January 18, 2016, having written an appeal to the President, they packed up their belongings and left the capital.
Naya Daur Party
The Naya Daur Party was agitating against drug abuse in Punjab. Dr Sanjeev Chhiber, national president of the party and a former surgeon, referred to himself as the “backbone” of the Anna Hazare-led India Against Corruption movement. Now, he has started the Naya Daur Party, as a Delhi opposition to the Aam Admi Party. “This year,” he says, “the party will enter the fray in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly polls.” While we talked, a flamboyantly dressed man with long flowing hair got into an argument with Chhiber. As he left with a huff, Sanjeev explained that he was a political opportunist who had come down to demand money from him. Before he could elaborate, one of his partymen shook his head and gestured him to keep mum.
Protest is the opiate of Jantar Mantar. Ex-army men, religious devotees and activists, are all gathered in one place, committed to their personal causes. The place has an unclean feel to it, probably because there are so many stories that need to be tidied up and sorted over a period of time. Overnight, one story can be replaced and smoothed over by a brand new camp of protestors, handing out leaflets and booklets detailing their cause. As I walked away, I felt the stories reverberating through the tapestry of the capital. The colours, the people and the air of rebellion makes up the democracy that we love and cherish so dearly.
This article was republished from Newslaundry.com.
