I know this is not a popular opinion to have right now, but I believe the Delhi Police did the right thing by denotifying Jantar Mantar as a protest site. It took the Chief Justice of India to point out the obvious: central Delhi does not have any “washroom, medical, and drinking water facilities”. I must mention, however, that central Delhi does have plenty of G20 billboards, hoardings with the Prime Minister’s face on them, and wild herds of barricades grazing peacefully on the traffic. Of course, these won’t be of much help when you are getting thrashed, molested, strangled, and stamped upon by the police and there isn’t a washroom nearby to change out of your bloodied clothes or a drinking water facility to wash your wounds.
That’s why the Supreme Court wisely noted that it is “high time basic amenities were provided” to protesters. “To that end, suitable alternative sites capable of housing such infrastructure need to be identified and designated,” it said. And yet, the honourable court has barely received any credit for its thoughtfulness regarding the protesters’ wellbeing.
We Indians have become so entitled we can’t even appreciate the magnitude of the challenge at hand: how to uphold the citizen’s right to protest while ensuring protests do not inconvenience those in power. Not only is this a humongously difficult balancing act, most people are not even aware that just as protesters have a right to protest, those in power also have a constitutional right to not see or hear or be troubled by any protest that they themselves have not approved in advance.
The best way to protect both these rights — the citizens’ right to protest and the government’s right to ignore protests — is to have protest sites that are as far away as possible from the seat of power. As the saying goes, ‘Out of sightings, out of beatings!’
The Red Planet, perhaps?
Seen from this perspective, the alternative sites identified by the Delhi Police — Ramlila Ground, CBD Ground in East Delhi and Burari Ground in North Delhi — don’t make the cut. They are all in the national capital, which means they fall under the jurisdiction of the Delhi Police. So, protesters may still end up facing physical assault by genuine or duplicate cops in counterfeit khakis with no name tags. We, therefore, need to identify alternatives to the alternative sites proposed by the Delhi Police that are beyond the purview of the Delhi Police.
A friend who works for SpaceX suggests Mars. One immediate advantage Mars has over central Delhi is space. As the Supreme Court correctly observed, the Jantar Mantar area in central Delhi is extremely cramped. At most it can comfortably accommodate 5,000 people, after which protesters would start outnumbering the paramilitary personnel. Mars, on the other hand, has enough space to accommodate the entire population of India, in case they all want to protest at the same time. But Mars does have one drawback in common with Jantar Mantar — it has no washroom facilities.
The second alternative, suggested by my RWA vice-president, is to notify the unfinished housing projects in Greater Noida. They account for over 74,000 vacant flats in varied stages of completion. The idea is to temporarily allot one flat to a group of four protesters at a nominal rate of ₹10 per square foot per hour of protesting.
That way we can easily accommodate at least 2.96 lakh protesters (74,000x4), which is more than the combined holding capacity of Ramlila Maidan, Burari, and CBD Ground. The state can use the money raised from the protesters to pay off the dues owed by delinquent builders. It’s a win-win for everyone — protesters, government, builders, duped house owners.
Dissent and a vacation
Personally, however, I’d like a change of scene. I feel it would be nice if the government notifies a national protest site in the Andamans. India owns hundreds of uninhabited islands in the archipelago. No dearth of space. I am told there is a lot of in-built scope for protests there because of the monumentally stupid (even by our own standards) Great Nicobar Island Development Project — a ₹1 lakh crore mega-infrastructure initiative that some people say was essentially conceived to test people’s appetite for protesting.
While I have never been to the Andaman & Nicobar islands, I hear they contain beautiful scenery, fine beaches, big-big turtles and stuff. It would make for a nice protest-cum-picnic spot. Protesters would not only get to do their protesting in peace, they can combine dissent with a vacation, and even try snorkelling in protest in case Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar does not resign.
The author of this satire is Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu.
Published - October 24, 2026 04:16 pm IST