Azad Maidan, the well-known place in South Mumbai to hold protest meetings and rallies, witnessed almost two rallies everyday at an average of 704 visitors or participants assembling at ground in the last calender year 2018. A Right to Information query filed by the RTI Activist Anil Galgali has found that Azad Maidan Witnessed 638 protest meets and rallies in the year 2018 with 2.58 lakh people participating it. The reply furnished by the Mumbai Police says that the protesters comprised several political parties, various social and non-profit organisations, student, Muslim and Christian along with other bodies, held protest rallies at the ground during the year.
RTI Activist Anil Galgali had sought information from Mumbai police to furnish information of the last three years as to how many protest meets and political rallies were held in the Azad Maidan and how many protesters or participants assembled in the protest venue. Azad Maidan police station, under which the Azad Maidan jurisdiction and that keeps a record of all sorts of meetings and protest rallies, in its reply has said that most of the protests and rallies were taken out by the various social and non-profit organisations, though political parties also gathered here. Reply filed also says that out of total 638 protest rallies, 301 rallies were carried out by the social organisations in which 40,101 protesters participated while merchant bodies and others conducted 167 rallies with 87,746 protesters participated. During the year, 68 protest rallies were held by labour organisations, 9 rallies by student organisations, 9 rallies by the Muslim organisations while Christian and other tribal communities held 44 protest meets and rallies.
Interestingly, the political parties took a back seat so far as numbers of protest meets or rallies are concerned. Bhartiya Janta Party (5 rallies), National Congress Party (one rally), Congress (12 rallies), Bahujan Samajwadi Party (4 rallies) and RPI (15 rallies) collectively took out only 29 rallies, with Shiv Sena and Samajwadi Party did not hold even a single morcha or rally.
Anil Galgali has written a letter to the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis demanding state authorities to devise a mechanism that works a bridge between the protesters and the state administration. "I have demanded Chief Minister to depute a high-ranked state official at the Azad Maidan, besides making ministers mandatory to visit Azad Maidan and listen their grevainces sympathically, so that a bette coordination can be ensured," Galgali wrote.
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