Bengaluru: The visuals of glass panes of buses being smashed, buses and other locomotives being torched, railway lines being vandalised, persons attacked with bruises surely don’t lift anyone’s spirits. 

It is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in the name of protests against a perceived and unverified threat in relation to the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) and the National Registry of Citizens (NRC). 

Though in reality, the CAB doesn’t pose any existential threat to any incumbent or prospective citizen of India and only grants citizenship as a one-time offer to the religiously persecuted non-Muslims of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, there is a sort of mass hysteria, which has been propelled by the fearmongering Congress. 

As of today (December 19) as many as 59 petitioners lie before the Supreme Court against the CAB. While the Supreme Court heard it on December 18, it further posted the matter to January 22. 

For those who are crying foul over the law and resort to vandalism, thuggery, arson and rowdy behaviour in the name of protesting the CAA, at least, with their conscience pricking them, they should wait till the Supreme Court’s verdict. 

Agreed! Peaceful protests are democratic and constitutional. But do genuine students resort to antisocial activities to register their protest? 

And are the police wrong in imposing section 144 as a preventive measure? The section prohibits an assembly of more than 4 in order to thwart any untoward incidents taking place. 

Though the intention of any ruling dispensation would be to uphold peace at any cost, the opposition is hell-bent on spoiling the reputation of the government. 

A so-called historian Ramachandra Guha was detained in Bengaluru. Yogendra Yadav, a so-called psephologist was also detained in New Delhi. 

As these people love to hold a peaceful protest but end up inciting and igniting passions, it seems the police were left with a Hobson’s  choice of detaining them.