Mumbai Protests Debate: When Political Rallies Disrupt Daily Life And Test Civic Accountability
· Free Press Journal
In no time, the video of the angry woman screaming at Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Girish Mahajan went viral this week. She spared no quarter in giving him—and the posse of policemen and policewomen accompanying him—a piece of her mind in the choicest language she could muster, repeatedly telling him to get out of the way because his rally had caused a traffic pile-up for an hour on a stretch that should take 15 minutes.
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Traffic disruption sparks outrage
Mahajan paid her scant attention and then mildly engaged but proceeded with the rally. The police disregarded her angry rant, more intent on providing the guardrails for the minister and his followers than clearing a lane for the vehicles.
How the Mumbai Police gave permission for this rally while denying it to tens of similar requests, including one last month from Chowpatty to Azad Maidan to protest the slashing of 45,000 mangroves, is a futile question for the times we live in. We must not expect an impartial application of laws any more.
Questioning the purpose of the protest
What’s absurd is that the ruling party took out a rally in the middle of a workday—this is an important detail—to protest the national Opposition defeating the Delimitation Bill in Parliament which, it claims, prevents the Women’s Reservation Bill from being implemented. The logic that ties the latter to the former would not pass the smell test of an undergraduate student of philosophy, but leave that aside. The protest and its implications call attention here.
Contradictions in messaging and response
The absurdity of Mahajan’s protest rally, apparently in support of women, turned farcical when his followers screamed back at the woman, saying, “Ae, kaad re tila baher (Ae, take her out from here),” showing, in a flash, their true sentiments towards gender justice and all that. Online, she was called a “beach” with the choicest of sexual abuses.
We need not go as far as Nashik, where the self-styled guru Ashok Kharat allegedly violated tens of women and had the state’s politicians, including from the ruling party, on his call list.
Manipur’s women are miles away. Why be shocked at the yawning gap between their loud cheer for the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan’ Bill and such references to a woman who was demanding answers after waiting in the traffic for an hour? The woman’s foul language, too, was unnecessary.
Debate on protests in urban spaces
There are aspects of this episode that say so much about Mumbai, about cities and protests. Can people protest in cities, or should protesters forfeit the democratic right and the socio-political language of resistance on the grounds of inconvenience to others? The point of a genuine protest is to draw attention.
Without protests, people in a democracy cannot fight for rights, make their collective voice heard on issues, send signals to governments, or claim their Right to the City as sociologist Henri Lefebvre defined it more than 50 years ago.
Protests were, and are, intrinsic to democratic city-making. They test the character of a city, confront the axis of power of elected governments and private capital, and challenge the dominant view of cities merely as “engines of growth”.
Protests show another imagination of cities—claiming people’s share in the growth, demanding inclusive and just development, and ensuring that the government of the day hears and sees them. The culture of resistance and protest is inherent to a city, at least as much as the culture of accumulation and profit.
Pointless protest versus meaningful dissent
But there are protests and pointless protests. Typically, the political or ideological opposition and people’s organisations protest against the ruling party. Mahajan’s, from a position of power, was a pointless protest in every way.
That it was held in central Mumbai, from Jamboori Maidan to NSCI Dome, far away from the seat of power, shows how seriously he took it. It was a mini-spectacle, a box to be ticked off for his political bosses.
The woman spoke for all of us who have faced disruptions in our already-stressed daily rhythm due to political protests, victory processions, wedding parades, and whatnot. If protesters marched with a valid agenda, like the thousands of farmers, sections of Mumbaikars would have been forgiving.
The High Court did come down heavily on Manoj Jarange-Patil’s morcha last year, though Mumbaikars were accommodating. A ruling party’s pointless protest would draw ire—especially if traffic were held up for an hour. In Mumbai, an entire hour lost to indulging a minister is sacrilege.
Responsibility of administration and public response
When people rise in protest, it is the responsibility of the administration to ensure smooth functioning or the least disruption to daily life. Thousands of farmers stayed outside Mumbai the night before and marched into Azad Maidan in the wee hours to minimise disruptions and traffic diversions. Mahajan’s pointless protest did not show even a fraction of this consideration.
Another point to note is that the screaming woman got hardly any support from those stranded in the traffic with her. She stood up for us—pretty much alone. Yes, she got away lightly, perhaps because she alighted from a Mercedes, spoke fluent English, and carried the confidence of the privileged.
Others less educated and privileged, shouting in Marathi or Hindi, might have had to spend the night in a police station. Even so, where is the public outrage? That Mumbaikars can be silenced by fear or threat of retribution to take injustice in their stride says a lot about Mumbai.
A reflection on Mumbai’s protest culture
This city once took on the might of the British with morchas blocking streets; where lakhs of workers jammed roads to demand rights for all till the turn of the century; and where protest poetry rang out in maidans. Legitimate protests with minimal disruptions lend democratic character to a city; Mahajan’s was far from it.
Smruti Koppikar, an award-winning senior journalist and urban chronicler, writes extensively on cities, development, gender, and the media. She is the Founder Editor of the award-winning online journal ‘Question of Cities’ and can be reached at [email protected].