Supreme Court-appointed mediator Sadhana Ramachandran on Thursday said that she would not go back to Shaheen Bagh on Friday but will hold talks separately with the ten women representing the Shaheen Bagh anti-CAA protesters at a different place.

However, the protesters have said that the talks need to take place only in Shaheen Bagh and nowhere else. They also said that Shaheen Bagh will be vacated only after the Centre withdraws the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) completely. 

This comes after Ramachandran, as part of the mediation panel, went to the protest site for the second day and met the anti-CAA-NRC-NPR protesters, in an effort to understand their grievances against the central government's proposed policies.

However, she claimed that the mediation panel appointed by the Supreme Court tried to maintain peace during the talks but that did not happen. Therefore, she will not visit the site again tomorrow, she said.

"Yesterday and today, we tried to maintain peace here but it is not happening. We will not come here tomorrow. Our sisters here should find a place where the talks can be held. A few of the women can come to hold talks but the others will have to stay outside," Ramachandran added.

She further said, "We promised that we will come, you called and we came. But today we have to talk together very carefully. We got blessings from the grandmothers yesterday (Wednesday). We had said that if India has such daughters, India is safe."

Sadhana Ramachandran, who is a senior advocate by profession, said, "Yesterday we had explained to you the many issues including CAA, NRC and we have all understood those issues. You have to understand that the issues of CAA, NRC is before the Supreme Court and that case will come up for hearing. But as of now, there is no date yet. In that case, today neither you nor anyone else knows what will happen. We can't talk about that today because that issue will be heard."

She also said that an issue which seeks immediate address is that of the closure of an important stretch of road due to the ongoing protests at Shaheen Bagh. This is an issue that needs to be solved, Ramachandran said.

"Today's issue is your right to protest and it is because of this petition that we have come here today. The question in the petition is that the road is closed and we have come here on the issue of its closure. We should come up with a solution so that your movement should remain intact and also find a way out," the Supreme Court-appointed mediator said.

To this, the Shaheen Bagh protesters took the mediators to show them the alternate routes that can be taken but are allegedly blocked by the police for no reason.

The SC-appointed panel visited Shaheen Bagh on February 19-20 to hold talks with anti-CAA protesters to persuade them to shift their agitation to an alternate venue but failed to break the deadlock.

Protesters at South Delhi's Shaheen Bagh have been sitting in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) for over two months. Protesters, largely comprising women, have refused to move out of the road before their demands are met. 

Shaheen Bagh featured heavily in the BJP's election campaign against the ruling AAP. BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, directly blamed Kejriwal and AAP for the inciting protests.  

The AAP won 62 of the 70 seats while the BJP was able to win only eight seats. The Congress failed to open its account for the second consecutive term.