Open minds

The Open Hand,which marks the northern end of Le Corbusiers plan for Chandigarh,is not necessarily the most prepossessing of monuments. Like much of Corbusiers plan for that city,it is far from intimate,like brutal,Modernist,windy,concrete plazas everywhere. But it was planned as a space to assemble,and thats precisely how it is being used this Independence Day by people protesting the continuing application of Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code,which bars the unlawful assembly of more than five people to the northern side of Chandigarh. Section 144,of course,was imposed when militancy stalked Punjab and its capital a quarter-century ago. Yet that shadow has passed from Punjab,while the restrictions remain.

Governments never give up a useful tool. Once promulgated,restrictions of one sort or another,laws of various kinds,remain on the books they become merely useful tools for control,or for harassment from those who possess more power than integrity. India has had its share of outdated laws; but this,in which restrictions clearly meant to be temporary and necessary at the time remain active for decades longer than required,is a particularly egregious example of how governments can sometimes behave. It falls to the rest of us to,like the thousand or so expected in Corbusiers plaza,to stand up and demand that our government re-evaluate its methods for control whenever conditions look like theyve changed. It is too,too easy,for what was abnormal in a normal time to begin looking like the new normal.

Chandigarh has no history of protest or rebelliousness,only those few fraught years. That point is being made,peacefully,by a few clever people who love their town. But the larger point,that it is necessary to continually discuss abnormalities and emergencies in government power,shouldnt escape us either. There are good arguments,for example,both for and against the continuance of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in the various districts it is still in force. A civilised discussion of its continued merits should always be on the table.