Rajdeep Sardesai slams criminalization of peaceful IYC protest at AI Summit
“You can’t criminalize protest because it makes you uncomfortable”
New Delhi: Senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai has said that while the brief protest staged by Youth Congress workers at Bharat Mandapam during the AI Summit may have been inappropriate, it does not amount to a criminal act.
Expressing his view, Sardesai described the protest as “poor form” and “wholly unnecessary,” stating that a healthy democracy often requires restraint rather than theatrics to draw attention. However, he emphasized that the nature of a protest and its legality must be viewed separately.
According to him, even if the method of protest was questionable, it remained a peaceful act and therefore fell within the constitutional right to dissent. “The right to protest is an inviolable right in a democracy,” he said, adding that personal discomfort with a protest cannot justify criminalizing it.
Sardesai strongly criticized the decision to invoke non-bailable provisions in the case, calling it a disproportionate response. He warned that treating peaceful dissent as a criminal offence risks pushing the country towards a “police state.”
He argued that the nation must be governed by the rule of law, not by arbitrary power or hyper-partisan public outrage. “If you criminalize protest simply because it makes you uncomfortable, you are heading towards a police state, and that is not what the idea of India was meant to be,” he said.
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Leh-bound SpiceJet plane faces engine issue; returns to national capital
New Delhi (PTI): A Leh-bound SpiceJet aircraft returned to the national capital due to an engine issue on Tuesday morning, according to a source.
There were around 150 people on board the Boeing 737 aircraft that was operating the flight SG121, the source added.
When contacted, a SpiceJet spokesperson said a flight operating from Delhi to Leh on Tuesday returned to Delhi after experiencing a technical issue.
"The aircraft landed safely in Delhi, and all passengers were disembarked normally," the spokesperson said in a statement.
The source said the aircraft suffered an engine issue.
