Let people protest

Trying to maintain public order by banning peaceful demonstrations is a fool’s errand.

On November 20, citing possible clashes between two competing groups of protestors, the District Administration Office in Kathmandu imposed a month-long prohibitory order, barring protests in the Maitighar area, plus the vicinity of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Office of the President. The DAO Lalitpur went a step farther, as it declared all forms of protests in the area around the UN House and the Ministers’ Quarters in Pulchowk illegal for six-whole-months. When the deadline of prohibitory order in Kathmandu was ending on December 21, the DAO inexplicably extended the ban by two months. Kathmandu DAO, while declaring the protest-ban, designated Santivatika in Ratnapark as an alternative protest site. But then the authorities started intervening in peaceful protests even there. Whatever gloss the government puts on it, banning protests at a place that has come to capture the spirit of peaceful resistance in the country cannot be justified. If there was credible information on impending violence at Maitighar, as seems to have been the case back in November, perhaps protests there could have been banned for a day or two. Yet even in that case, a ban on peaceful protests should have been the last resort. This, in turn, suggests an ulterior motive.