Following the order of Supreme Court, on 19th February, 2020, the two negotiators - Advocates Sanjay Hegde and Sadhna Ramachandran reached Shaheen Bagh to talk to the protesters and told them that they do have a right to protest. The Supreme Court does not want them to stop protesting, all it wants is to move the protest to some place else, so there wouldn't be any traffic congestion that has resulted due to the road barricades.
The mediators took to the stage and began their dialogue with the protesting women. "We have understood that this is India's movement and not a Hindu-Muslim movement," said Advocate Sadhna Ramachandran.
One of the protesters misjudged the petition to which the interlocutor Sadhana Ramachandran got angry. One of the protesters said that the PM does not think we are Indians. The mediators spoke for nearly 2.5 hours and requested the ones present to meet at a neural location without men and media on 20th February, 2020.
Sadhna Ramachandran said, "Tomorrow, I would like to talk to 10-15 women protesters at different place."
She added, "We are not able to talk properly at this place. You are not maintaining the decorum."
After meeting the protesters, Sanjay Hegde, said, "We will be going to Shaheen Bagh in the afternoon tomorrow but it might not be the kind of meeting where we sit up on the stage and get talked at. We have spoken to the local police officials about the issues they want to raise."
He added, "However no government official has reached out to us so far with any perspective. We have sent out feelers and have said we are willing to speak to people but we have not called on any official that Mr So and so please come speak to us."
Author - Dyuti Pandya
