“We are upset,” said the young resident of Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh. He did not want to be identified. A friend standing next to him shot him a...
“We are upset,” said the young resident of Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh. He did not want to be identified. A friend standing next to him shot him a glance, indicating he should stop airing his views.
He was agitated about the Supreme Court judgment delivered on October 7, relating to road blockades put up in Shaheen Bagh by people opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act during the three-month-long agitation. The court had ruled that public spaces could not be occupied indefinitely. It agreed that protests are part of democracy but said they should be restricted to designated areas. The blockade at Shaheen Bagh had been inconvenient for commuters, the court added.
In December, Shaheen Bagh had been transformed. It became the site of vibrant protests against the new citizenship law, which made undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship. This was India’s first faith-based law. Critics also feared that, clubbed with the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens, the Citizenship Amendment act would be used as a tool to discriminate against Indian Muslims.
But on the afternoon of October 7, all traces of protest had disappeared from Shaheen Bagh. Traffic now roars through the stretch where a marquee once stood. Shops lining the road...
