COVID-19 Pandemic Must Receive Priority, Says SC Appointed Interlocutors After Clearance Of Shaheen Bagh Protest Site

Following the clearance of Shaheen Bagh protest site by police on Tuesday morning in view of the lockdown imposed in Delhi due to COVID19 pandemic, Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde and Advocate Sadhana Ramachandran - who were appointed by the Supreme Court as interlocutors in the issue- released a statement.

Hegde and Ramachandran urged everyone to the see the issue not as "a question of win or lose", and said that the grave pandemic threatening the country must receive "priority".

"We request the administration and the protestors to now not do anything, that will exacerbate the the underlying tensions that culminated in the street protests", they said.

The full statement is as follows : 

"As Supreme Court appointed interlocutors, we had submitted two reports to the court, detailing our efforts and the situation then prevailing.

Our process of interlocution has reinforced many valuable lessons, including the need for continued dialogue at all times. We believe that the Supreme Court mandated interlocution, kept Shaheen Bagh protests peaceful even while violence erupted in other parts of Delhi. Some rigours of the blockade were relaxed by the protesters clearing some peripheral roads. Today the few remaining Shaheen Bagh protestors have been finally dispersed peacefully with minimal force.

We request everyone to see the issue not as a question of win or lose. The country has a grave pandemic threatening it and currently that must recieve priority in terms of everyone's attention. We request the administration and the protestors to now not do anything, that will exacerbate the the underlying tensions that culminated in the street protests.

We thank the Supreme Court, the protesters, the police and the media for the trust placed in us.

Sanjay Hegde & Sadhana Ramachandran".

They were appointed as interlocutors by a SC bench comprising Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph on February 17 to hold talks with the Shaheen Bagh protesters regarding the opening up of roads closed due to the protests.

The bench observed that protests at public ways "must cease".

After the intervention of interlocutors, the protesters cleared a section of the protest site to open the road from Jamia to Noida in Uttar Pradesh and Faridabad in Haryana.

The protests, largely led by women, had been going on in the form of sit-in at Shaheen Bagh since December 15, 2019 against the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 and the proposal to introduce nationwide National Register of Citizens.

After lockdown measures were imposed in Delhi following COVID-19 outbreak, the protesters announced that they will leave the site by leaving behind 5 persons to carry forward the protests.

On Tuesday morning, on the 101st day of the protest, the Delhi police cleared the site. Police said that they have detained 6 women and 3 men for violating Section 144 orders.

On February 1, a person had fired gun shots at the protest site. On Sunday, the day of Janata Curfew, unidentified persons had hurled petrol bombs at the site.