Criminalising Protest

Shut the voices that do not speak for them: that is what all non-democratic regimes do. And that happens in demo­cracies too. Or at least it happens in India which makes high claims of its democracy. Sometimes it is done through the state machinery like the police and the armed forces, at other times through the use of proxy forces. The recent attacks on activists Akhil Gogoi of Assam and Ramesh Agarwal of Chhattisgarh in two separate incidents are stark examples of this.