Bengaluru’s Town Hall is seeing protests led by HS Doreswamy, a freedom fighter and social activist, from February 6 to 10. The protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is also to call for protecting human, social, economic, and political rights.
On February 6, freedom fighter and Gandhian HS Doreswamy was reportedly informed by the police that he did not have permission to hold protests and he would be detained. However, Doreswamy landed up at 10.15 am and sat through the protest for the entire day.
Some people from a shamiana hiring company came to set up a sun shade for the protesters, particularly for Doreswamy, but the police detained them for about 15 minutes, later let them off. However, they were prevented from setting up the shamiana.
Protesters and activists noticed that Doreswamy was forced to sit in the sun, while the police had set up their own tent to shelter themselves from the sharp sun. Temperatures in the city hit 30 degrees even as the sky saw no clouds throughout the day.
Organisers involved with the protest said that he was until recently admitted in the hospital, and was actually not supposed to strain himself. Regardless, he continued attending the protests, and plans to do so until February 10.
On February 7, protests continued, even as the police allowed the setting up of the tent and granted permission.
Protesters shouted slogans such as “Hum cheenke lenge azaadi” (we will snatch our freedom), and “hum laddke rahenge.” (we will keep on fighting)
One of the activists at the protest, Warsi spoke about why people continued to attend protests across the country, and stressed that the problem is economic.
“They are saying people are sitting in protests because they are jobless and don't have any business, but who is the one who didn’t provide jobs? We don't have business to attend to, because people like Modi have split the entire country and making it their own personal business by selling government properties.”