-Nisha Bhaskar
Protests as Democratic Tools for Environmental Protection
Pollution is the addition of unwanted substances in the environment leading to adverse effect
on living organisms as well as the ecosystem. Thus, to control pollution one needs to regulate
two factors, firstly the addition of unwanted substances and secondly, the causes of addition.
This calls for a collective action of the state and its people. While it is the State that can impose
sanction and deter the addition of unwanted substances leading to pollution by legally
censuring and admonishing the polluters; It is the individuals who can ensure such
implementation by adhering to the State’s law. This is evident from numerous environment
rights protests where the people have not only raised environmental concerns bringing it to the
notice of the government but also begot the demands. Chipko Andolan in India, Yellowstone
Protests in the USA, and Jungle laws reforms in Peru are examples of this kind of deliberation
between the state and its people for ensuring environmental protection. Though termed protest,
these deliberations have resulted in positive outcomes through parley with the state such that it
strengthened democracy rather than promoting anarchy. Protest is a means through which the
populace confronts their government and raises their demands and aspirations. It is a way
through which the democracy actualizes its objective, that is representation of not only the
rights of the individuals and groups, but also the means for actualizing the rights. What
Amartya Sens terms as capability. Protest has been a tool of the people through which they can
directly keep a check on the power of the State by confronting the government. However, in
recent times the very objective of protest seems to be witnessing a paradigm shift such that
they have become symbolized as tools of anarchy and upheaval.
Constitutional Safeguards and Limits on Peaceful Assembly
Peaceful protest is protected under the Constitution of India by virtue of Article 19 (b) which
guaranteed all the citizens the right to “…to assemble peaceably and without arms”. While
living in a constitutional set-up one needs to abide by the text of the constitution. Thus, a
reading of Article 19 (b) remains incumbent on Article 19(2) which enlists the reasonable
restriction in the following words, “Nothing in sub-clause (b) of the said clause shall affect the
operation of any existing law in so far as it imposes, or prevent the State from making any law
imposing, in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India or public order, reasonable
restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause”. A reading of this
section therefore highlights the limitation on freedom of assembly in instances which is
detrimental to the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India or which hinders public order.
The on-going Delhi Protests against rising Air Pollution are emerging as a challenge to the very
public order and furthermore the recent alleged remarks on Hidma open the portal of
interrogation vis a vis national security. Hidma was neither an individual environment
champion like Saalumarada Thimmakka, who challenged deforestation single handedly or
social activists like Bablu Ganguly, Mary Vattamattam & John D’Souza who kindled
environment concerns in groups and generations. The idea behind using symbols in protests
whether humane or material, is to conjoin the group consensus towards a common objective.
Using a Naxalite as a symbol of protest not only is non-contextual to environment concerns but
also maligns the very objective of democratic protests. While Hidma is being romanticized, it
cannot be accepted as sui generis. One needs to understand that romanticizing an idea or an
individual is good to the extent that meets the underlying objective. The current Delhi Air
Pollution Protest undermines the very idea of romanticism. Romanticism attributes an identity;
it provides a sense of belonging such that one can identify with the inanimate and feel related.
It is therefore highly unlikely that individual living within the metro city of Delhi finds
attachment to a Naxal from a distant region without consuming literature romanticizing it. This
makes the protest ignoble such that it has become more of a challenge for freedom rather than
a cause for ensuring freedom.
Delhi Air Pollution Protest: Security Concerns and Misplaced Symbols
This derailment from Air Pollution to concocted romanticization shifts the focus from
environment to individual again making the environment protest about an individual. The
objective of the protest is to question the state for the poor environment and question its policies
for dealing with the current pollution dystopia. However, this protest has become a ground for
arbitrary, non-planned remarks against practically everything on the face of the earth, such that
there are children with posters questioning imperialism. This is an aggrandised ludicrous action
done in oblivion of the issue and therefore needs to be cauterised.
India’s Cultural Bond with Nature and the Misguided Direction of Current Protests
We are Indians, environment remains an indispensable part of our life, our custom, our culture.
Our day begins with watering our plants or paying homage to the sun, our festivals are tethered
to nature. Therefore, indeed we will have a qualm when the environment is under threat more
so when the air we breathe in is polluted due to humane actions. However, this protest is
anything but an angst against the environmental degradation, rather is hindering the state policy
to mitigate air pollution by attaching resources for its redressal.
