Dalit protests slow down Delhincr
IN HEART OF DELHI Scores of protesters marched onto Connaught Place’s outer circle, cops try to pull them back through talks
NEWDELHI: Bharat Bandh participants in Delhi chose to make their presence felt by stalling vehicles in several parts of central Delhi, throwing traffic out of gear for nearly four hours on Monday afternoon.
The worst affected was the outer circle of Connaught Place, which saw vehicles stranded for long periods even as the traffic police diverted vehicles to arterial roads such as KG Marg and Barakhamba Road.
For almost an hour, a long stretch of CP’S outer circle was out of bounds for vehicles.
The police had granted protesters the permission to march from Mandi House roundabout to Parliament Street where their leaders would address the gathering. The jams began at Mandi House itself around 11 am and lasted nearly an hour. But when the protesters moved towards Parliament Street, scores of them marched onto the Connaught Place outer circle even as the police tried to pull them back through talks.
Given the law and order problems that could possibly crop up, senior police officers such as the New Delhi joint commissioner of police, the deputy commissioner of police and multiple other senior officers were deployed to talk with the protesters into keeping away from Connaught Place.
“We had decided not to use any kind of force against the protesters as the situation could have escalated in no time,” said a sen-
theysay ior police officer.
As a massive traffic jam built up on the outer circle, it also spilled onto the adjoining roads where the traffic was being diverted. Choosing to escape delay because of the jam, many commuters chose to walk after letting go of taxis and autos and jumping off buses midway.
The police were finally able to move the protesters away from the outer circle. The moment they moved on to the Parliament Street road, the police used their buses and gypsies to block the road leading to CP. The protesters still went on to block the Tolstoy Marg, but that did not affect traffic much.
“The protest did not have any leader with whom we could interact and convince the protesters to restrict themselves to the Parliament Street. Many of them became a part of the protest just to show their solidarity with the Bharat Bandh,” said a senior police officer.
The Supreme Court is passing orders against Dalits at the behest of the Central government. If the court order against us is not revoked after a review, we will return to the streets in larger numbers on April 9.
The protest did not have any leader with whom we could interact and convince the protesters to restrict themselves to Parliament Street. Many of them joined just to show their solidarity.
A senior police officer I keep reading about Dalit grooms not being allowed to ride horses and uppercaste people not eating with lower castes. My friends’ behaviour changed after knowing my caste. This protest allows us to vent our daily frustration.