Historian Ramachandra Guha, who was among the protesters at Town Hall, said that there was “absolutely no reason to impose Section 144 in a peaceful city.”
He was among those detained during the protests, while he was holding a placard of B.R. Ambedkar and talking about the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi.
He said: “Fearful and paranoid leaders in Delhi were behind imposing the colonial-era Section 144. Protests are happening everywhere in the country and they did not want such a thing to happen in a BJP-ruled State”.
On being arrested by the police, Mr. Guha said, “I went to the Town Hall to register my peaceful protest against the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act and the completely arbitrary imposition of Section 144. It was going to be a peaceful protest... In the van, I was among the first group of 10 or 15. Over an hour or two we were joined by several hundred people of diverse age, language, and religion. We could not identify whether they are nationalists or anti-nationalists.”
He was released after five hours.
