Pune, Oct 17 The Cockroach Janta Party staged a protest in Pune on Saturday, demanding the scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
A large number of students participated in the protest near the statue of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, close to the Pune Collector’s Office, and raised slogans against the government while holding the national flag.
The protesters also carried posters, drawings and paintings to convey their message to the government.
A protester told PTI that the “Lehra Do Tiranga” demonstration was being held to demand Kumar’s resignation and oppose the SIR of electoral rolls over alleged irregularities. He said citizens should also support the protests over the matter in New Delhi.
“As citizens of India, we have freedom of expression and the right to protest. We should be allowed to hold peaceful protests,” he said, criticising the curbs imposed by the police in Delhi.
The protester said that as they could not travel to the national capital, they were trying to support the agitation from Pune and raise their voice.
Speaking about the difficulties in obtaining his birth certificate, the protester said he was born in 1988 and did not have the document. His parents were no longer alive, making it difficult for him to obtain the certificate, he said.
The protester said he had tried to get it and would try again, but people should not be harassed unnecessarily. He was referring to the SIR exercise, which has been criticised for allegedly being cumbersome and requiring documents that many people simply do not possess.
“We also have the right to question things if something wrong is happening. That is all we are doing,” he said.
Pointing to the protests that led to the resignation of the then Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, a woman protester expressed confidence that their efforts over SIR and CEC would succeed sooner or later.
“There should be democracy in India, not dictatorship,” she said.
(PTI News)
