Mumbai residents protest for removal of POTA

Dozens of organisations held a militant demonstration at Churchgate Station in Mumbai on 29 July 2004

"Why is POTA there? - Because there is no democracy!" "POTA must go!" and many other chants greeted as the evening commuter arrived at Platforms three and four of the Mumbai's busy local Churchgate station on 29 July 2004. More than a hundred protestors militantly demonstrated as part of a action planned in seven major cities of India, namely, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Ranchi.

The various leaflets distributed there stated that every section of our society is under attack and exploitation by the global forces. The rights of the workers, farmers, students, minorities, Dalits, tribals, women, are all under severe attack due to privatization and neo-liberalization. Black laws like POTA have become the mantra for the defense of the nation state and police encounters have become the heroic deeds of nationalism. POTA has become a weapon to create communal divide, weaken and suppress the struggles of the people. The movement demands the repeal of black laws like POTA with retrospective effect, demands to know the truth of the event at Godhra.

Many local activists of Lok Raj Sangathan was there shoulder to shoulder with Janandolan coalition comprising of Insaaniyat, Ekta, Forum Against War and Terrorism, Majlis, Nav Bharat Yuva Andolan, DRTC, ICHR, Insaaf, MARG, Rashtriya Yuva Sanghtan, Rashtriya Ekta Samiti, Yuva Bharat, Shanti Ghar, CNDP, Forum Against Opression of Women, VOTE, Ramai Ambedkar Pratisthan, Smip Pratisthan, Salokha, Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal, Anubhav, Vidrohee, Build, CSSS, VAK, Maharashtra Janvikas Kendra, Asha Kiran, Awahan Natya Manch, Lokshya Hakk Sanghtan, ACT, Sane Gurujee Rashtriya Smarak Samiti. The leaflet distributed by Lok Raj Sangathan dre attention to the recent police encounter in Ahmedabad in which four innocent people were murdered by the police. It declared that the police had no justification whatsoever for killing these people and demanded that the police responsible for these deaths should be booked under section 302 of IPC and tried for the crime of murder.