New Delhi: Everyday one or other group are coming to the street to protest. To control and regulate these protests government has created a new regulator called ‘Protest Regulatory Authority of India’ (PRAI).
While speaking to us Mr. C. Damodaran, head of newly constituted PRAI said, “As part of our first step, we have asked each protest group in this country to register and they will get a PRAI number. Without that neither they can participate in the protest nor they can mobilize support for their protest.”
Mr. Damodaran said, “Then they need to submit a form where they have to mention what are the probable days they are planning to do protest. If there is no conflict with other groups protest date, we will give them those dates and publish it in our portal. In case there is a conflict, we will try to settle by facilitating discussion with all the stakeholders. Ultimately if they insist on same date, we will give them slots on hourly basis. But this will cut in to their public support, it’s like two blockbusters clashing at box office by releasing on the same day.”
Mr. Damodaran added, “Forgot the most important point. Each protest needs to clearly state its objective, otherwise it will not be approved. There are many protests where forget the public participating in it, even the organizers do not know what for they have organized the protest. We also recommend, protest groups to use same nomenclature if objective is same. Like Ramlila Maidan 2012, Ramlila Maidan 2013, Ramlila Maidan 2018. Context pata chal jata hai naam se ki yeh corruption ke against hai.”
Protest groups ask PRAI website must capture against each PRAI ID, how many buses were burnt, how much public property got destroyed, how many were lynched. “If these are not mentioned, how the next generation will know how ‘effective’ was that protest,” said one ‘leading’ protestor who has torched more than 50 buses in his career.
