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NEW DELHI: While one half of the Delhiites were busy watching the new Delhi CM taking oath on Saturday noon and the other half celebrating/preparing for the Valentines Day, there was a third category, albeit very few in number, who were protesting in a rather unique manner against the person with hilarious views like killing our new CM and his organisation which stands against couples celebrating V-Day.
It would have passed just like any other unnoticed protest had two things not happened- the eccentric style of protest and more importantly, the unnecessary ruthlessness of the police.
The big fat Indian wedding touched new heights this Saturday when around 250 young protesters gathered outside the office of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha on Mandir Marg with their “band, baaja and baaraat” hoping to find their groom/bride and get married off there itself.
Sadly, their ‘mandap’ was the Parliament Street Police Station where they were literally dragged to.
The Hindu Mahasabha’s threat that they would marry off couples found publicly displaying their affection on V-day was rather turned into a mere joke when people organised this protest through social media.
“Since the Hindu Mahasabha has come up with this wonderfully generous plan... we felt that the least we could do is to make the execution of their plan easier," the organiser of the student protest Vidhyalakshmi Kumari had posted on Facebook.
The wedding preparations were in full swing with some of the protesters, calling themselves “baratti” having reached the venue by 12.30 pm.
But surpassing their expectations, the decorations included the police barricades and they had guests waiting- a huge police force.
So when they were only beginning to gather and shout slogans against the Mahasabha, they were forced into the police bus, detained and taken to the Parliament Street police station on charges that the police couldn’t even tell that time. It was only much later that the ones detained were told the grounds on which they were- unlawful assembly.
Pallav Dev, a Delhi University student had come with his friend Riya, a student of Ambedkar University both wanting to “find a person of the same sex and then get married”.
However, their friends had been dragged and detained by the police personnel without any reason and they were also the next in line to be taken to the police station.
The police unnecessarily hauled the peaceful protesters, forced them into the bus and took them to the Parliament Street station.
At least three rounds of buses took place and one by one, all the protesters were detained.
The mood changed from excitement and joy to anger and odium.
Anyesha Ray, General Secretary of JNUSU (JNU Student Union) was enraged. “Why don’t they detain those people who are threatening to kill Kejriwal. Why doesn't the police arrest people who are doing Love Jihad and shuddikarans? Don’t we have any freedom of choice, any freedom to express?” she said, adding “ It’s not just about this. This is a much larger question”.
Another student from JNU, Sayan had a similar opinion. “ We are here to protest their encroaching in our daily lives. Where is our freedom”, he questioned.
Gohen Thomas, another protester seemed unhappy with the police action. “It is a symbolic protest, what are the police officials thinking?”.
Meanwhile, the police detained anybody and everybody whom they found on that barricated road.
Manjit Bhatia, the owner of a nearby shop while terming the Mahasabha people as “mentally sick” shockingly expressed “ the police personnel have taken away my cleaner as well. He was just doing his own work.”
Ironically, Hindu Mahasabha’s office was locked from inside and there were no signs of anybody from the Mahasabha, except their “senior” Vice President who came out for a short while to get some glimpses, give a few more hilarious quotes to the media and the Mahasabha “pandit” who disappeared with the blink of an eye.
Swami Omjee, the “senior” Vice-President (he stressed on the word “senior”) of the Hindu Mahasabha, infamous for his threat to kill Arvind Kejriwal, went on an on about how love without marriage is only “lust” and how he is ready to get people married provided they “love” each other.
Claiming to have more information than IB and CBI, he said he would kidnap the Khans of Bollywood if they didn’t convert to Hinduism by the next Valentines Day.
Further, openly announcing that his “Omji Hindu Sena” has only those members who have a licensed revolver, he thinks of Kejriwal as a “Desh Drohi” and claims to have Sharmila Tagore, Gauri Khan’s mother as his “bhakts”.
Rambling the similar rant of “pashchimi sabhyata”, NK Shastri, the Mahasabha pandit also made a small appearance only to talk about our “sanskriti” and”vaastav ka pyaar”.
In the meanwhile, whilst the protesters were being detained and sent to the Parliament Street Police Station, they continued their “shaadi” celebrations in the police station till they were finally released in the evening.
The only man, besides the police (though even some police personnel were against the”orders” that they had to follow) who supported the police action was one Narendra Singh, apparently from the NDMC. Interestingly, he had views ( read inane perspective) on everything from how the Kashmiris are getting all the subsidies to how China was funding the protesters from JNU.
Though the crowds weren’t huge and this would have passed just like any other event, the police’s action and behavior made at least the spectators think.
It could aptly be put like one of the onlooker, who was from Germany said “ I don’t know what to make of this. This wouldn't have been such a protest, it was just an idea which would even have died. This action wasn’t required. It makes me think deeply about how some are allowed to express their opinion, the others are just not.”
(Photos by Yashaswani Sehrawat, and some from the Facebook page of Shudh Desi Romance)
