Just days after the protests at Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMIU) and Seelampur, the government is allegedly trying to make it difficult for protesters to assemble and hold peaceful protests in different parts of New Delhi.
On Thursday morning, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation sited security concerns behind a series of station shut downs. According to tweets from their official twitter handle, the following stations have been shut down completely: Jamia Millia Islamia, Jasola Vihar Shaheen Bagh, Munirka, Lal Quila, Jama Masjid, Chandni Chowk, Vishwavidyalaya, Patel Chowk, Lok Kalyan Marg, Udyog Bhawan, ITO, Pragati Maidan, Barakhaba and Khan Market. Trains will not halt at these stations. Additionally, Entry and exit gates of Vasant Vihar, Mandi House and Central Secretariat are closed. However, interchange facility is available at Mandi House and Central Secretariat.
It is noteworthy that all these stations are either near areas where protests have previously taken place or are convenient centrally located popular places where demonstrators often gather to hold public meetings. Given how peaceful protest is a democratic right of citizens, it appears that the present regime is showing proto-fascist inclinations in a bid to control dissent. However, undeterred by these tactics and even the imposition of prohibitory orders, peaceful protests are planned across India against the un-constitutional Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the upcoming nationwide exercise along the lines of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that was recently conducted in Assam.