Faces Behind The CJP Protest: Students, Parents, Workers | How Delhi Police Got It Wrong?

[00:00:00]Razad, first and foremost, when a crowd is underestimated by such a large margin, I'm sure you saw the pictures yourself, all of them viral on social media, does the failure begin with intelligence gathering? Is it operational planning? Is it command on the group? Because reinforcements had to be sent in later from all the districts in the national capital.

[00:00:21]>> Yes, you're right. uh that the intelligence failed in the sense that uh you know there was also a kind of a political assessment that this kind of a protest is not going to go beyond say 5,000 or about 8,000 but you when you have more than 50,000 people coming in from all sides and mind you this was not only in Delhi it was all over and I'm surprised how the intelligence would fail there's no official word about it I think it was more a kind of a political hubris that uh you know this is a kind of agitation which is leaderless which is sans politics which is sans slogans the ideologies left right or center and that's why it can be contained so when you are confronted when the police is confronted with a with a mob of this size then obviously in any agitation so far in the last 75 years is the repetition of the same incidents the so-called police excesses and also the excesses that means the violence in you know instituted from the size of the protesters. So I would say at the very beginning that it was a political lapse because after all police is just a tool a political engagement in those 25 days would have not led to this. Now it is obvious that a march to parliament is not allowed. It cannot be allowed.

[00:01:52]>> Now, how does the police stop a crowd which is jumping over the barricades?

[00:01:58]There is no such thing called a you know a mild latty charge.

[00:02:02]>> Yeah.

[00:02:03]>> Yes. Police did. So there was brutality from both sides. Police firing tear gas shells at the bodies which is highly unprofessional, untrained. And number two, I saw incidents of even doctors who were trying to help out and they were chased off by the police. That was also extremely wrong. But I saw policemen being dragged to one area. I saw stones being thrown at them. And if you see the final count of injuries, there are 118 policemen injured and there are 70 to 80 protesters injured. So where does the responsibility lie? responsibility lie on the political regime not to have allowed this and that's exactly what I'll say in the end that yes there were fault from both sides the police and the protesters but political you know sagacity would have prevented this kind of >> the excesses and the lapses and of course the gray area in which the police has to work because police are expected to maintain law and order but they're also expected to facilitate a peaceful protest. those numbers that you just highlighted Mr. You see this this this this entire situation do you think it could have been diffused had there been better negotiation early on in the day when the Janta mantra area was about to be uh you know the people had started coming in it was starting to swell up that negotiation that happened between the organizers and the Delhi police right at the outset could that have played a bigger and a key role absolutely I totally agree with you for example a a a reasoned police Commissioner would have said that sonum wuk can be here but the you know the the medical tests can be done hourly eight hourly that's exactly what we do when somebody is on fast his vitals were fine his parameters were okay therefore unless the doctors say no now this is the time to lift him we don't lift him that's number one number two is if the negotiations would have been there because they had clear set demands. The demands were that you give 1 cr to these 22 people who had died in the neat uh uh you know tragedy and also that that meant the Pradhan should resign. Are these illegitimate demands? Aren't they demands which are absolutely legitimate in any system and this is a democracy?

[00:04:33]Number three, were the protests legitimate? Of course, they were legitimate and therefore what did they ask for? They said somebody should meet us and that's exactly what happened later. So if this could have been prevented, this could have been prevented by a simple political process which could have been initiated at that