Wayanad, Keralam: Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday said that the right to protest is guaranteed under the Constitution, and that people were free to agitate against the policies of the party-led governments as long as they are peaceful.
Vadra was responding to reporters' queries here regarding the police action last night against the Lower Primary School Teacher (LPST) rank-holders protesting outside the Keralam Secretariat in the state capital for more than four months.
Police on Wednesday night removed the hunger strike tent of LPST rank-holders protesting in front of the secretariat here, and arrested their leader Valarmathi, who was later shifted to hospital after her health condition deteriorated.
"My take across India and the world is that people have the right to protest. In democracies, especially, they are given this right by the Constitution. I think people should be allowed to exercise their constitutional right," Vadra said.
She said that if there is violence or the protest is extensively aggressive, something is going wrong or people are getting hurt, then the police should take action because the protestors must respect the rule of law.
"But as long as the protest, even if it is against our government in the state or our policies, is peaceful it should be allowed to continue," she said.
Vadra said that her view applies to the Congress government as well as any other administration in the country.
The rank-holders' had been protesting demanding Kerala Public Service Commission to make appointments to government schools from the LPST rank list before it expires.