Will the whistle-blowers bill see the light of the day?
13 Feb, 2014At around 4 pm on Feb 11, more than 100 relatives and colleagues of whistle-blowers were arrested from outside the BJP office. The families, along with NCPRI activists, were demanding that the BJP clarify its stand on the grievance redress bill and whistle-blowers protection bill and assure them that the BJP will support the bills in Parliament.
The protestors sat outside the BJP office for more than 4 hours demanding that the BJP make a statement. No one from the BJP office spoke to the protestors. The protestors, mostly women, were arrested by the Police. A meeting of Mr. Modi with the BJP MPs was to start at 4:30 pm. The protestors were relatives and colleagues of slain whistle-blower’s Satyendra Dubey, Shimbu Bishnoi, Ram Thakur and were peacefully sitting outside the BJP office.
Activists Anjali Bhardwaj, Amrita Johri & Praavita Kashyap of the NCPRI were arrested along with the families of whistleblowers. The families were also simultaneously protesting outside the Congress office. B. K. Hariprasad, MP, addressed the protestors who said that Congress will make every effort to push these bills in Parliament.
Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Shekhar Singh of the NCPRI strongly condemned the arrest of the families and activists. They said that people protesting peacefully should not have been removed using force. People have been promised by all political parties that these 2 critical bills will be passed in the ongoing session of Parliament. It is a shame that Parliament is not functioning and that people who are demanding answers from political parties are being ill-treated. All political parties need to answer why critical bills are being made scapegoats in the political stand-off in Parliament.
Amba