Gateway of India not a protest site, Maharashtra Home Minister

Referring to the protest at the Gateway of India in south Mumbai, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday said that the demonstrators were asked to move away from the monument as it is not a protest site. Following the violence in the JNU campus in Delhi, he also said that he discussed the law and order situation in the state with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Mumbai:Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday said protesters at the Gateway of India were asked to move their agitation over the JNU violence to Azad Maidan as the iconic British-era monument is not a site for staging demonstrations.

Deshmukh said he discussed the law and order situation in the state following the violence in the JNU campus in Delhi on Sunday with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

"The chief minister is satisfied with the manner in which the state police handled the situation," he said while talking to reporters here.

Referring to the protest at the Gateway of India in south Mumbai, which began on late Sunday night over the JNU violence, he said his cabinet colleague Jitendra Awhad visited the site on Monday and asked the protesters to move their agitation to Azad Maidan.

Azad Maidan, also located in south Mumbai, is just 3 km away from the Gateway of India and is the designated site for protests and rallies in the financial capital.

Students, members of the public and activists took part in the Gateway of India protest and denounced the attack by armed men on scholars and teachers inside the JNU campus.

"I had told Awhad to ask students to shift to Azad Maidan. The police also appealed to them to shift. The Gateway of India is not a place to protest as it results in traffic snarls," Deshmukh said.

"Protesters were asked to maintain peace and not to take law into their own hands. By now most of them have dispersed," the newly-appointed home minister said.

Deshmukh said the police had sought names and identity cards of the protesters.