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Indian civil society is flummoxed by the recent series of measures undertaken by the Gujarat administration to ensure the safety of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is visiting the state for a few days. Some of the precautionary measures include asking street vendors to not operate their shops and detention of activists and dissenters. This has prompted activists to write to the PM himself.
In their letter, over 80 activists, including peace activist and Jesuit priest Fr. Cedric Prakash, have pointed out to the PM, “The authorities have issued orders that in all the areas that you will be visiting and along the route that you would be travelling, street vendors should not conduct business from March 10-12. Street vendors who work on the SG highway, Prahladnagar, Ashram Road, Airport area, Stadium, 132 feet Ring Road and the GMDC area and Vastrapur Lake have already been closed for vending as conveyed to us by representatives of street vendors.”
While they understand the need for reasonable restrictions for a few hours while the PM’s convoy is passing through an area, they activists have condemned the blanket order to shut ship for three days saying, “While the police and authorities have the mandate to ensure that there would be no compromise in the security of the PM and his entourage, such a violation of the right to pursue livelihood of thousands of citizens simply cannot be tolerated; such unconstitutional orders and harassment by public officials need to be stopped forthwith.”
Activists have also pointed out how the police and local administration have used this opportunity to issue orders for preventive detention of known dissenters and activists. “Indiscriminate preventive detention and arrests, house arrests, ‘najar kaid’ of civil society activists have started from today, and is expected to intensify further tomorrow,” they have said in the letter. “Such preventive action targeting history-sheeters, people with criminal records, those with licensed fire-arms in the region is understandable; but to harass law-abiding citizens and activists is simply not acceptable, just because they may have expressed dissent or opposition to the government,” say the activists.
The activists have therefore appealed to the PM to “personally intervene to rescind the order preventing street vendors from conducting business for 5 days.” They have further said, “We also demand that you intervene to instruct the DGP of Gujarat to ensure that civil society activists and political leaders are not harassed or detained by the law enforcement authorities.”
The entire letter may be read here:
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