NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court appointed mediators headed by senior advocate Sanjay Hegde are meeting anti-CAA protesters at Shaheen Bagh on Wednesday.
The two of three interlocutors visited Shaheen Bagh to initiate talks with the hundreds of protesters, especially women who have been on a sit-in against the new Citizenship (Amendment) Act for more than two months.
This comes two days after the two-judge bench of Supreme Court has constituted a three-member committee to talk to the Shaheen Bagh protesters and resolve the issue while maintaining that protest is a fundamental right and file a report in court.
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Speaking to media, Hegde hoped for a fruitful interaction with the protestors as he said, “We hope the talks will be successful.”
Interacting with the interlocutors, protesters said that if the government is ready to revoke the Citizenship Amendment Act, then we are ready to end out protest.
Mediators ask media to leave
Media, covering the dialogue between the interlocutors and protesters was told to leave protest site on Wednesday after the interlocutors refused to speak in front of them, as per IANS reports.
The decision came after a brief argument between the interlocutors and protesters over the presence of media during the dialogue, as protesters weighed in on having conversation in presence of the media.
“Jo baat hogi sabke saamne hogi” (Talks will take place in front of everyone), women protesters at Shaheen Bagh shouted as senior lawyer Sadhna Ramachandran announced that interaction will not start before video recordings were stopped.
Addressing the protesters, senior lawyer said, “If you (protesters) want to talk before media, you can speak. But we will not speak.” Ramachandran said.
“We have 4 days to talk, after that we will have other ways for dialogue,” Ramachandran added.
“We have come here according to the order of Supreme Court. We hope to speak to everyone inside and keep everyone briefed. There are no favourites. We hope to resolve the matter inside with everyone’s cooperation,” said Supreme Court-Appointed Lawyer Sanjay Hegde.
Hegde reads out the Supreme Court order
The protesters also lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
After listening the protesters Sanjay Hegde and lawyer Sadhna said they will come again on Thursday for further talks.
Soon after Hegde and Sadhna left, former Chief Election Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah reached the site. Talking to the protesters he said I am here as your well wisher. You can put you grievance before both the Supreme Court lawyers and me as well. I will forward it to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on Monday had appointed a team of three interlocutors to be led by senior advocate Sanjay Hegde to talk to the Shaheen Bagh protesters in connection with shifting the protest venue, and file a report in the court.