Gang rape protest: Delhi police appeal for calmMassive protests over Delhi gang rape, PM meets Shinde
IANS | Dec 22, 2012, 04.54 PM IST
NEW DELHI: Police fired teargas shells and resorted to lathicharge and use of water cannons on Saturday to disperse thousands of people who had gathered at Raisina Hill close to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to protest against the gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman in a bus six days ago.
But the government said it was already acting on the protesters' demands and appealed for calm.
Some of the protesters, who were injured in the police action, were taken to a hospital.
Police first used water cannons to disperse the crowd but as the protesters did not budge, they used teargas shells and wielded sticks.
Policemen were seen chasing people, many of them students. Some protesters resorted to stone-pelting too.
As the people reassembled, police again used water cannons to disperse them.
Apart from Raisina Hill, protesters had converged at India Gate too.
Minister of state for home RPN Singh said police had been asked to exercise maximum restraint and the government was acting on people's demands.
The minister told a news channel that police could not allow people to break barricades and enter government buildings.
Calling for calm, he said there was no police action at places where protesters were peaceful.
Some people, he said, were trying to make it an unruly mob.
"I'm not justifying use of teargas," RPN Singh said but added that there were attempts to break barricades in the sensitive area close to the President's house and other key government offices.
"Government is hearing them (the protesters) loud and clear," he said.
Police would seek maximum punishment for the guilty in the gang rape case and strict steps were being taken to ensure safety of women, he added.
Police have arrested all the six accused in the case.
The rape victim is currently battling for her life in a hospital here.
RPN Singh said the government was willing to talk to the people but the protest should be orderly.
But the protesters, which included school students, lambasted police action and said they would stay put.
"We were protesting in a peaceful manner. They started beating us. Is this democracy? We are just demanding a strong law," Ritika, a college student, said.
"We are not afraid of police action. We'll come here daily till we get justice," said Ruchi, another student.
"Why teargas shells; why lathicharge; why water cannons? We are students, not terrorists. Why so much police here; why don't they stand on the road to stop crime?" she added.
Protestors were carrying posters and banners.
"My tight top, high heels are not an invitation," read one poster.
Another read: "Law of zero tolerance for rapists."
The protesters started arriving at India Gate since early morning and were joined by former army chief Gen VK Singh.
They then began marching towards the high-security Rashtrapati Bhavan on Raisina Hill but were stopped by security personnel, who had put up barricades.
Outrage has been swelling across the country after the woman was tortured and subjected to brutal gang rape in a moving private bus on December 16 in Delhi while she and a male friend were going home after watching a film.
PM MEETS HOME MINISTER
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday directed home minister Sushilkumar Shinde to ensure sense of security in Delhi and see that incidents like last Sunday's gang rape do not recur.
The directive came when Shinde called Singh to brief him on the situation in the aftermath of the gang-rape incident, sources said.
Shinde told the Prime Minister that he was personally monitoring the situation.
Sources said the Prime Minister told Shinde that he should ensure a sense of security in the capital, whose law and order is the direct responsibility of the home minister.
Singh asked Shinde to take all measures to see that there is no recurrence of the incidents like the recent gang rape of 23-year-old girl who was also brutally assaulted by the six accused.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Massive-protests-over-Delhi-gang-rape-PM-meets-Shinde/articleshow/17719986.cms See VIDEO
Delhi rape: People on the streets, and netas in hiding
by Akshaya Mishra 42 mins ago 5:50PM 22 Dec. 2012
There’s anger on the streets. A 23-year-old has been brutally attacked and raped. She is fighting for her life in a hospital. India’s young are asking one simple question: why? They are demanding a clear answer and they want promises that will convince them that they will be safe in the country. It’s a protest not loaded political motives; it’s an expression of overwhelming frustration. Yet, no political leader has the courage to come out and face them.
Where is Rahul Gandhi? He is supposed to be the Congress’s link to the Young Indian. Where are the other young leaders from other parties? Where are the elder ones? What stops Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit from coming out and sharing the grief of the protesters? A lot of them have been shedding copious tears in the media for the rape victim and on the state of women in the country. They have been busy scoring political brownie points on television channels. Why cannot they come out and meet the protesters?
Protests following the gangrape in Delhi. AP.Well, they don’t have the real answer to the problem. The government’s knee-jerk response to the Sunday evening incident reflects the bankruptcy of ideas in the political class. Removing tinted glasses from public vehicles, keeping the light on in them in the night and closing pubs after 1 am are nothing but tokenism. If someone seriously believed that such measures would curb incidents of rape, he must belong to another world.
Leaders are incapable of finding any solution to the problem. They are either incompetent or indifferent. There are three policemen for every VIP in Delhi and one for more than 700 hundred of ordinary people. The ratio of policemen to one lakh population in India stands at roughly 130. In other countries the people-police ratio is much higher. According to United Nations guidelines, it should be at least 220. The country is thus short of six lakh policemen.
But that is only part of the story. The available policemen are mostly busy protecting VIPs, mostly politicians, making passport verifications, managing rallies and helping other government authorities do their job. There are only a handful left to serve the ordinary people. The police are understaffed, overworked and demoralised. But they also represents the might of the state, and thus make for easy targets for public wrath whenever there’s trouble. Any call for better law and order should start at reforming the police force.
The politicians won’t want that status quo changed. In some way it helps their cause if the police force remains weak, far short of optimal strength. They should be left to playing their political games. It’s better the protesters out there find the solutions and present these to their leaders to take them forward. Their sense of hurt and despondency should lead to something productive. But are they good enough to see beyond immediate emotions? The answer, going by what one hears on television and other media, is disappointing.
In the entire discourse so far, the emphasis on punishment is disportionately heavy. ‘Hang them’, ‘castrate them’, ‘put them in jail quickly’ have been the rough and ready remedies on offer. These go with the current public mood. No one is in disagreement that rapists should get the toughest of punishments but it hardly qualifies as any solution to the original problem. Any action makes little sense when physical and psychological damage is already done to the victim. Moreover, people committing the heinous act of this kind hardly think of the consequences at that very moment.
The best idea is to shift attention to prevention. And when it is about prevention, it has to be mostly about efficient policing. It requires quality, which is not possible without adequate manpower and proper training. Why hasn’t one heard any expert talking about new recruitment to the police force? Why is the government not being challenged for sitting on reform proposals? Why are our police so weak at investigating cases?
The anger at the police might look justified in the heat of the moment but in the final analysis it makes little sense. The protesters must demand that the politicians start reforming the police first. They can present Rahul Gandhi and other leaders with a charter of actionable demands. The call for harsher punishment to victims can wait.
The collective frustration must yield something that is beneficial to it.
http://www.firstpost.com/politics/delhi-rape-people-on-the-streets-and-netas-in-hiding-566417.html
Live: Raisina Hill under siege
Delhi flexes youth muscle as thousands of kids protest gang rape
In an unprecendented show of youth power, tens of thousands of men and women, many barely out of their teens and some as young as 13 years old, are marching down Rajpathto lay siege to Raisina Hill. Vijay Chowk is ringing with the cry of 'We want justice!' This is an unprecedented outpouring of rage over last Sunday night's horrific gang rape of a 23-year-old woman in a bus in south Delhi.
http://www.niticentral.com/2012/12/live-bjp-seeks-special-parliament-session-on-delhi-rape-case.html
5.52pm: Several people have been injured when police and particularly the RAF, who were ordered to clear the high-security zone, lathi-charged the protesters. There is total chaos at Raisina Hill. Angry protesters are still unrelenting. Ambulances have been rushed in. One woman has been grievously injured and is being rushed to the hospital.
5.48pm: Police are readying the water cannons. They are expected to, once again, lob tear gas shells and water cannon the protesters who have now gathered at Raisina Hill. Some scuffles were reported shortly. Police as well as the protesters are becoming impatient. The protest that have been going on the whole day now seems to have culminated to scuffles and some amount of violence as police are lathi-charging anyone and everyone who are trying to break through barricades. Some of them have reportedly smashed some glasses of police vehicles.
5.57pm: Even after police lathi-charged protesters, trying to push them out of the high-security zone, the agitated youth refused to budge from the area around the Parliament, where many of them decided to sit down and shout slogans.
5.32pm: Police are pushing the students away from Vijay Chowk. Buy some students are moving towards Gate no. 4 of the Parliament. Police continue to lathi-charge the students, in attempts to push them away from the high-security zone. Incidentally, most of these protesters are women and female students.
5.29pm: Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde is at the moment in talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the issue. There seems to be no let-up in the protests that began earlier in the morning and is still continuing.
5.27pm: Police again lathi-charge protesters who have crossed over into the high-security zone. One of them has been injured. People are being moved towards the road that leads to India Gate from the Parliament.
5.22pm: Protesters trying to breach the high-security zone between the Parliament and the North Block. Hoards of people have reached the lawn of the Parliament near the South Block and are closing in on the Parliament.
5.17pm: Member of Parliament Sushma Swaraj demands special Parliament session for framing law to give death sentence to those who commit heinous crimes against women. She has also sought death penalty for rapists.
5.11pm: Every one waits for Monday to see what the Government at the Centre and the Sheila Dikshit Government has to say or do by then. Today, being a Saturday, not much will taken place on the Government’s front.
5.10pm: BJP calls for special parliament session on the issue.
5.09pm: Two of the yellow barricades have been removed at Raisina Hill. No scuffles have taken place for some time now.
4.08pm: BJP women’s wing vice-president Meenakshi Lekhi, who has been at Raisina Hill from the morning, said: “They want someone in authoritiy to listen to them, do something for the law and order and change the law to deter the criminals. The awareness level has risen lately with the advent of television channels and the internet. That is the reason there has been such a huge turnout at this agitation.
“The Government is for the people… it has to listen to the people.”
http://www.niticentral.com/2012/12/live-bjp-seeks-special-parliament-session-on-delhi-rape-case.html
December 22, 2012
17:30 Lathicharge begins again at Raisina Hills:
Delhi Police has begun lathicharge against protestors. Additional police forces have been called in.
Another protestor has been injured in the crackdown.
17:09 Delhi gangrape: Unrest simmers at Raisina Hill:
The number of protestors at Delhi's Raisina Hills, demanding justice for the gangrape victim and better security measures for women in and around the national capital, has been consistently swelling.
Unrest simmers after a lull of few hours.
RAF personnel are manning the barricades.
http://news.rediff.com/commentary/2012/dec/22/liveupdates.htm