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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Three dead after drinking country liquor in Meerut, police initiate probe
Meerut (UP) (PTI): Three people died under suspicious circumstances after consuming country liquor in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. Preliminary probe has not confirmed if they died due to the quality of alcohol, officials said on Saturday.
All three vomited and had abdominal pain after drinking the liquor on Friday evening and were rushed to a hospital where they were declared dead. A post-mortem will determine the exact cause of death, they said.
According to the police, Baburam (60), a grocery shop owner, Jitendra (35), who worked at his shop and Ankit alias Daulat (40), purchased liquor in the evening from a government-authorised country liquor outlet and began drinking at the spot.
Shortly after drinking the liquor, the health of all three deteriorated, and they began complaining of vomiting and abdominal pain.
The three were rushed to a private hospital, where doctors declared Jitendra and Ankit dead, while Baburam passed away during treatment.
Additional Director General (ADG) of Police for the Meerut Zone, Bhanu Bhaskar, District Magistrate VK Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Avinash Pandey, and District Excise Officer Pradeep Kumar reached the spot and initiated an investigation.
SSP Avinash Pandey said that preliminary investigations have not confirmed whether the liquor was "toxic or expired". The bottling date was found to be February 11, 2026, and other bottles from the same batch received no such complaints.
He added that a post-mortem will determine the exact cause of death. Personnel from the Health, Forensic, Surveillance, and Intelligence teams have been constituted to investigate the matter.
Following the incident, the family members created a ruckus at the hospital. Police said further action would be taken based on the findings of the investigation.
