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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has a plan to hold the Republic Day parade, but will not scale down its protest, even as police, government and the Indian armed forces stepped up pressure on the protestors.
A double cordon – one around Delhi’s Rail Bhavan, a stone’s throw from parliament House and another around Raisina Road, ensured a small sanitised area. Only a group of around 100 people remained at Rail Bhavan including AAP’s top leadership. Home Ministry sources said a final call on the logistics of holding the parade will be taken on Wednesday.
The police had to cane-charge AAP supporters when they broke barricades to enter the area where Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was protesting against the Delhi Police. But after that, spokesperson Ashutosh said: "We have a plan for Republic Day, there will be no disruptions. We are open to dialogue. Kejriwal is a responsible Chief Minister.”
Earlier Kejriwal had vowed to ask his supporters to flood Raj Path, just adjacent to Rail Bhavan which is the road on which the parade is held.
While AAP supporters were defiant, many of them said they were not in favour of disrupting the parade. But many also said that till the Delhi police force is disciplined, ‘we live in a country that is not a republic for us”.
But Chief of Army Staff, Gen Bikram Singh said the armed forces needed the space to be cleared as they had to park their equipment there. The issue of the stand-off between the Delhi government and the centre came up at a meeting between the Prime Minister and the President of India. The centre is hoping that the Supreme Court – which agreed to hear a PIL on Kejriwal’s protest – will ask Kejriwal to shift the venue of his protest.
Union Minister Manish Tewari who visited the protest area was badly heckled by AAP supporters. But later, he said Republic Day was also the responsibility of the Delhi government: “Is the central government alone responsible for success of Republic Day celebration? Are not the Delhi Chief Minister and other Ministers responsible?,” he told reporters in New Delhi, adding that Mr. Kejriwal’s actions “are a complete disrespect to the Constitution.”
Initially, Kejriwal was admant. “The people protesting here are not Pakistanis or Americans. They are our own people. (Home Minister SK) Shinde is saying that we will we will celebrate Republic Day but for whom? The VIPs will watch the floats and parades. That is not Republic Day.
“We will continue our protest. How can Home Minister (Sushilkumar) Shinde sleep when so many crimes are happening in Delhi? When women are unsafe in the city? We won’t negotiate,” Kejriwal told reporters.
Attacking Shinde for ruling out action against police officials who refused to raid the alleged drug and prostitution ring, he said, “I would urge him not to back his men but back the people of India."
