NEW DELHI: The All India Students’ Association (AISA) on Wednesday announced its support for the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) proposed September 5 protest march in Delhi, demanding the withdrawal of FIRs against students and an inquiry into alleged pellet and bullet firing during an earlier march to Parliament on July 20, which was stopped by police.“We stand with any democratic, secular, progressive agitation or protest that demands accountability from this government… They must fully withdraw all cases. There should be an inquiry into the firing of pellets and bullets, and the government must be fully prepared to take accountability for the same,” AISA president Neha Bora told PTI.“From AISA, we are seeing that this is a matter which still remains unresolved. The government itself had committed to withdrawing the cases, but still this is a major issue where students who protested against the government have cases against them,” she added.The CJP announced the fresh protest on Monday, accusing the Centre of backtracking on its promise to withdraw FIRs against student protesters. The earlier agitation was called off on July 25 after then Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan stepped down, which had been the protesters’ primary demand.Bora, who was on a 23-day hunger strike in Delhi last month with climate activist Sonam Wangchuk over the NEET paper leak, argued that the protests became necessary because the government had made dialogue with ordinary people difficult.
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“The entire point of why students and youth had come out on the streets and why we came out on the streets was that this government has made it impossible for the common people to have a dialogue with them,” she said.Asked about the government’s likely response, Bora maintained that a democratic government should engage with people seeking dialogue.“Ideally, the government of a democracy should listen to people who are coming to have a dialogue with it. What will be this government’s response is not something I can say,” she stated.On the Delhi Police’s statement that it had not received a request for the September 5 march and would review any request, Bora said AISA would await its response.“There have been many protests in the past without police permission being granted, and we are those people who stand by the democratic principle that protests do not need permission,” she stated.
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