On 11 August, Sandeep Pandey, a social activist and Ramon Magsaysay awardee, was briefly put under house arrest in Lucknow, along with his wife Arundhati Dhuru, a fellow activist. Pandey said this was done to prevent them from organising a protest the same day opposing the government’s effective nullification of Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The police officials deployed outside Pandey’s residence did not let the couple leave their house until 4 pm that day. However, Pandey had already postponed the protest scheduled for 11 August to 16 August.
The local administration denied that Pandey had been put under house arrest. “Why should we arrest him? There is no truth in it,” the Lucknow district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma told the Hindustan Times. “Yes, the administration did not allow him to hold a demonstration at Gandhi statue in Hazratganj, as he had announced. They are free to stage protest at Eco Garden, which has been made the official dharna sthal”—protest grounds—“so that no inconvenience is caused to commuters.”
Pandey spoke to Tushar Dhara, a reporting fellow at The Caravan. He said he is determined to go ahead with the 16 August demonstration. “What they have done in Kashmir is wrong,” he said. “They have not consulted with the people or any political party of that state. It is anti-democratic and they know it.”
(Update: After this interview was published, Pandey was placed under house arrest, shortly before the protest was scheduled to begin.)
COMMENT