highlights
Wrestlers’ protest at Jantar Mantar has entered the 16th day.
The story of Jantar Mantar as a protest site began in 1993.
Many important movements of the country have taken place at Jantar Mantar.
New Delhi. The protest by India’s top wrestlers against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, chief of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), entered the 16th day on Monday. Some farmer groups trying to enter Delhi to join the wrestlers’ protest were stopped by the Delhi Police at the Tikri border on Sunday. The wide footpath or lane adjacent to the Jantar Mantar, an 18th-century observatory, has over the years become synonymous with all kinds of protests.
According to a report in the Indian Express, even during this protest, the wrestlers have made these streets their home demanding action against Brijbhushan Sharan Singh. On Friday, the wrestlers formed two committees to advise them on the future course of action in their fight against the outgoing WFI chief. The story of Jantar Mantar as a protest site began in 1993. This year the capital got its new protest square.
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By the time Delhi was yet to expand its borders to the south and east, it was the Boat Club, the iconic place for resistance overlooking Janpath, Rajpath and Parliament. But the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid movement made space in other parts of the country. The Congress-led government, already troubled by an earlier agitation in 1988 led by peasant leader Mahendra Singh Tikait from western Uttar Pradesh, banned meetings at the Boat Club.
There has also been an appeal to ban the protests at Jantar Mantar
But it became clear to the subsequent governments that the protest site would have to be controlled. Jantar Mantar seemed ideal at that time. Although it was close to the Parliament, it was not large enough to accommodate a large crowd. Furthermore, the topography of Jantar Mantar, with its two main entry and exit points, was easy to manage. In October 2018, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) appealed to the SC to ban protests at Jantar Mantar after some residents of the area argued that they were facing noise pollution and unhygienic environment.
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Anna movement was popular in recent times
The NGT upheld these arguments and asked the authorities to shift the protesters to an alternative site – Ramlila Maidan, about 4 km away. However, in July 2018, the SC ruled against a complete ban on protests at Jantar Mantar and the Boat Club area. One of the most significant protests at the venue in recent times took place on 5 April 2011, when social activist from Maharashtra Anna Hazare started a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar demanding an end to corruption and a Lokpal Bill . With the involvement of prominent activists like Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal, the movement had become huge. Ultimately, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was born out of this movement. This place has been the site of many other historical political protests.
Between March and April 2017, debt-ridden farmers of Tamil Nadu agitated in the national capital for 40 days, demanding a drought relief package of Rs 40,000 crore, loan waiver and setting up of a Cauvery Management Board by the Centre. He staged dramatic protests, including using a skull, holding dead rats in his mouth, to indicate that he was forced to eat rats after the situation worsened. Apart from this, many demonstrations have taken place here.
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Tags: Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Indian Wrestler, Jantar Mantar
FIRST PUBLISHED : May 08, 2023, 13:27 IST
