Section 144 of the IPC can be imposed according to the decision of the District Magistrate according to the emerging situation at hand, in which the administration feels that it cannot control a law and order situation. Baba Ramdev had taken permission for 5000 people. The capacity of Ramlila Grounds is 30,000 people. But Baba himself claims that over 1 lakh people were there and would be there the next morning, hence the Govt had to crack the whip at night only, since many more people were to be expected in the morning. Under Section 144 IPC Govt can arrest, exterminate(send off) or even take co-ercive action against the person/persons leading the mob or demonstration.
True there were 8 rounds of tear gas shells which were fired. True there was some disbursal of crowds by some force. But NOT a Lathichage and NO Firing at all. The visuals of the Gun firing tear gas shells have sparks which is usual and cannot be taken as FIRING.
Baba Ramdev reacted rather cowardly to all this. He used innocent women and children as human shield around himself to avoid any arrest and dressed himself as 'women' to 'escape' the police action.39 people have been reportedly injured out o which Only One -Rajbala is seriously injured and critical. 23 Police men are also injured since Baba Ramdev's supporters did throw bricks on them which also injured their own people. Bajrang Dal and VHP supporters hurled stones at police and police retaliated in a legitimate tear gas fire.
Democratically Elected Governments around the world have the right to use certain degree of force when such domestic situations arise. Primary method of crowd disbursal is Tear Gas which is often used when a 30000 strong crowd is to be disbursed. If it was on the road and water was readily available , Police might have used Water cannons to disburse. All this talk of Lathicharge is a humbug. The visuals on the internet are misleading, they show the same bunch of police men just disbursing the crowd by shoving some lathis in air. That is shown again and again to spin this into a "Government Torture against its own people"
Another spin is about the sparks which come out of the tear gas gun, that is spinned by Right wingers as "Firing" and "Jalliawalabagh". Unfortunately in 24X7 media, anybody can SPIN anything !
We all know that Baba Ramdev's demands apart from corruption (and even on it ) were irrational, unimaginative and obsolete with the times. His demand on Black Money, though justifiable was more a rhetoric than a "demand". He keeps on talking about 400 lakh crores, when even BJP's own committee on Black Money is less than 1/4th the estimate.
His other demands such as Labour Laws, Public Delivery Guarantee System, Teaching Hindi in Higher Educational Institutions were purely POLITICAL in Nature. Hence had a definite Political hue to it. It seemed as if Baba was announcing his Party Manifesto infront of 30000 people in full media glare instead of practicing Yoga in a Yog Shivir (That was mentioned in the banner on the main stage)
Babain his day long discourse mentioned atleast 50 times - "Mere Media Ke Bhaiyo Ko Main Batana Chahta Hunn"
Now You and I should judge what he wanted to tell !
To be continued...
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