BANGALORE: It was planned to be a peaceful walk from Town Hall to Freedom Park to celebrate right to expression but on Sunday it turned out to be a day-long drama with the organisers of Slut Walk were, detained and released after a few hours. The organisers of Slut Walk, an initiative to eliminate sexual discrimination and to protest against oppressive practices to tackle the issue, were detained until noon at Seshadripuram Police Station ostensibly in the name of clearing the crowd, who gathered without realising that the walk was cancelled.
Immediately after the organisers were taken away by the police, volunteers, friends and well-wishers divided themselves into groups and they started scouring all police stations to find out the reason why they were detained and were traced to Sheshadripuram.
“The arrest of youths conveys the message that we are criminals. Are we just puppets under the ruling party? We have a lot to say but does anyone truly listen to us? We are young and fighting for a better tomorrow but the political parties think they know the best,” said an angry participant on Sunday.
Later at a press meet, the organisers who do not want to be named, said, “The walk was cancelled 13 hours prior to the scheduled time, despite seeking due permission. Due to the short notice, the organisers went to the venue to disperse the crowd, console the gathering and inform the participants the reason for the cancellation.”
The walk caught a lot of attention on the Internet and like-minded people came together to support the cause of right to expression. New media tools like text messaging, Facebook and Twitter were abuzz with the news (see box) with people criticising the police and the Government. The organisers have promised another attempt soon to organise the walk.
However, Additional Commissioner of Police Suneel Kumar told City Express that the walk was cancelled following threats from organisations and in view of security of the participants. But, he declined to reveal the names of the organisations.
The Threats
Even as the reporter was speaking to the organisers on Saturday, they got a call where a lady said, “If we find any women wearing short or skimpy clothes for the walk, we will trash them with a broomstick. If these hopeless, cheap women dress like that or come naked, they deserve to get raped. If a woman shows her private parts, then she is tempting a man; after which the consequences are obvious and she deserves it.”
The call was allegedly made by a member of a women’s organisation based out of Malleshwaram. While the organisers were wondering about this bizarre call, at around 8 pm they received a call from the Police Commissioner’s office stating that the permission for the walk was revoked because of “security concerns”.
Organisers informed City Express that several political outfits including fringe groups of BJP, RSS, Ram Sene and other organisations were against this march. The threat calls followed in swift succession. Finally, the organisers decided against conducting the walk in view of the everyone’s safety and one group of organisers were present on the venue on Sunday to disperse the crowd.Simultaneous freeze mob
The organisers on Saturday conducted a freeze mob on Brigade Road and at Garuda Mall to create awareness on the walk, which was then not cancelled. Over 60 volunteers performed freeze-scenes (a scene is held for over three minutes) depicting harassment and discrimination, little realising what was in store for them on Sunday.
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