B Choudhury denied venue to hold rally

Our Constitution clearly gives the citizens freedom of expression and the rights to assembly and association.

By playing around with Dr Choudhury's application and giving mostly lame excuses for denial of space to him, the authorities concerned are giving an impression of violation of his constitutional rights. Besides, it's a question of holding a rally and not organising any demonstration or agitation. If there were any such concern then we only have to cite the example of the opposition's programme on last Saturday. This went off peacefully largely because it was allowed to pass that way -- without any obstruction. Violence begets violence.

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If the government is not prepared to allow any space to dissent on purely presumptive grounds, then we have to say that its belief in democracy is shaky. It is not just an affront to an individual, it's an anti-thesis of democratic values.