Bengaluru civil society groups have warned of a city-wide mass disobedience movement on November 28 if the state government does not withdraw restrictions limiting protests to Freedom Park. The groups have set November 26 as the deadline for the government to revoke the order.
The warning followed a round-table discussion convened by the Campaign for the Right to Protest at Gandhi Bhavan on Monday. Participants passed a resolution demanding the immediate withdrawal of the restrictions and said resistance would intensify if the government failed to act. The groups also demanded that all first information reports registered against people protesting outside Freedom Park be quashed.
The participants included trade unions and representatives of Dalit, women’s rights, civil liberties, environmental, student and LGBTQ+ organisations. They argued that confining demonstrations to a single location makes it harder for residents and workers from different parts of Bengaluru to participate in public protests.
“If the city can be divided into five zones and the police commissionerates be broken into smaller divisions for administrative convenience, why shouldn’t there be more places to protest?” the group said. It questioned why residents living in areas such as Electronics City or near Devanahalli should have to travel several kilometres through traffic to reach Freedom Park.
The issue has also drawn criticism from historian Ramachandra Guha, who described the Congress government’s position as hypocritical. Guha said protests in democratic cities generally take place at locations visible to the public and argued that Bengaluru should continue to demand such access.
Participants said the restrictions have affected workers and vulnerable groups seeking to bring attention to alleged violations. S Babu of the Karnataka Pragathipara Beedi Vyaparigala Sangha said workers who are denied constitutional protections find it difficult to organise protests under the current arrangements. Sujatha of Sadhana Mahila Sangha said the restriction also affects sex workers, whose protests outside police stations have previously been used to pressure authorities when workers were allegedly detained, beaten or threatened.
The restriction followed an interim order issued by a division bench of the Karnataka High Court on March 3, 2022. The court directed the state government to ensure that protests, processions and similar activities in Bengaluru were held only at Freedom Park and nowhere else. It also directed that such activities should not adversely affect traffic, particularly during rush hours, and that action should be taken when traffic was disrupted. The case was disposed of by the High Court on August 1, 2022.
The Campaign for the Right to Protest said it would convene another meeting to form a formal central committee. Activist Vinay Sreenivasa said the proposed mass disobedience movement would begin on November 28 if the restrictions were not revoked by the November 26 deadline, with pressure continuing until the restrictions were lifted.
