With the hearing pertaining to Shaheen Bagh likely to come up before the Supreme Court on Monday, women protesters who have been on a sit-in since December 16 maintained that they were not willing to vacate the site till the Citizenship (Amendment) Act is revoked by the Centre.
The apex court had earlier appointed advocates — Sanjay Hegde and Sadhana Ramachandran — as interlocutors to speak to the protesters about shifting to an alternative site while observing that the road blockade was depriving other citizens of their rights.
While one of the several routes blocked was opened by authorities on Saturday for traffic, after several rounds of meetings between the demonstrators and mediators, the former said the route was never barricaded by them.
“People are saying that Shaheen Bagh protesters have opened the road towards Kalindi Kunj but we never blocked it in the first place. The barricades were put by the police just like they have blocked other roads. We have only been blocking one stretch which is where the women are sitting. So how can we open a road which we did not close? said a protester, Prakash Devi.
She added: “When the interlocutors had come for a meeting, we had told them that it is only a 150-metre stretch was blocked by the protesters. They again came and went to inspect the site when they saw that the barricades were not put by us. In fact, we are ensuring that ambulances and school buses pass through this particular stretch so that no hindrance is caused to them.”
A housewife, Aleena, said: “We hope that these facts are put before the Supreme Court. While there has been a lot of talk on inconvenience being caused to others, our concerns should also be brought up. The government has not made any attempt to reach out to us. Why should we even think of shifting the protest elsewhere? Will anyone even listen to us then?”
The protest against the CAA-NRC-NPR regime has entered its 71st day with hundreds of people gathering at Shaheen Bagh on a daily basis.