The ‘Yuva Hunkar Rally’ led by Jignesh Mevani, an Independent MLA from Gujarat, turned out to be a flop show with a few hundreds turning up at the protest march at Parliament Street on Tuesday, amid heavy police presence.
Although the authorities maintained till the last minute that Mevani and his supporters did not have permission to hold the rally, it passed off peacefully without any hindrance from the Delhi Police.
The tepid response shown by commoners towards the rally spearheaded by Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani was too evident as the police personnel far outnumbered supporters who rallied behind him.
Along with the first-time MLA from Vadgam constituency in Gujarat Jignesh Mevani, peasant leader from Assam Akhil Gogoi, Swaraj India leader Prashant Bhushan and popular faces of Left groups from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) like Shehla Rashid, Umar Khalid and Kanahiya Kumar addressed the rally.
They demanded the release of Bhim Army founder Chandrashekhar Azad 'Ravan' and repeal of cases against him. Almost every leader on stage indiscriminately targeted and vented their 'ire' against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath.
Mevani said that his politics is not based on divide and rule as that of RSS and BJP but is rather based on love and compassion for all.
Present among the sparse crowd were the Dalit students from Haryana who claim to be the members of the Dalit outfit Bheem Army. They were carrying posters of their leader Chandrashekhar.
The rally sought to raise the demand for the release of Dalit outfit Bhim Army’s founder Chandrashekhar Azad who was arrested in June last year from Himachal Pradesh in connection with Thakur-Dalit clashes in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district.