Protests under different political systems

Violent protest erupted in the country France after a teenager was shot dead by a policeman. Reportedly, boy named Nahel M. was stopped by the cops at traffic and was asked to show documents. He tried to flee the scene when police fired the gunshot. However, eye witnesses have completely dismissed the information given by police. Nahel was targeted from a very close distance and not because of self-defense, they said. According to the reports, one suspect has been arrested in the investigation after protestors set cars and buses on fire. More than 4000 police personnel have been ordered to patrol cities across the country. 1000 people have been arrested whereas more than 200 police officers were injured.
French President Emmanuel Macron called the ongoing protest ‘unjustifiable’. ‘Violence against police stations, schools, town halls, against the Republic, is unjustifiable. Thank you to the police, gendarmes, firefighters and elected officials mobilized. Meditation, justice and calm must guide the next few hours’, he tweeted. President defended the ‘right to protest’ but urged people to maintain calm. Whole incident has drawn large media attention worldwide including organizations defending human rights and advocating against discrimination. As per the available information, amnesty international group have accused French police of ethnic profiling and have recommended deep, systematic reform to address the discrimination. UN addressed the killing and called on French administration for not considering ‘deep issues of racism and discrimination’ in law enforcement.
Protests are on the rise. Over the past few years, movements led by protestors against national issues have brought down several democratic administrations from Asia, Africa to Europe and Latin America. Not only here, countries supporting authoritarian administration like Algeria and Sudan also witnessed pro-democracy protest concluding to bethrown long ruling leaders. Protests are increasingly going global with a drive to bring change and democracy across the globe.
Mukesh Chaturvedi is a sociology and politics expert. With brief understanding, he portrays the concept of protest along with democracy as the only stable collaboration. He commented on the ongoing protest in France and said, ‘French administration is facing continuous violent protest as a part of global protest chain. It will end certainly, after a point when administration won’t bent. Because today, protests are happening but are not led by an individual but a group. So, it ends with diverse aims and satisfaction. Today’s protest is ‘assurance of awareness’ among youth.’ According to him, people in France are not happy with current president because of his Islamophobic electoral strategy.
Violence mislead the protests and suppress the voices. Why people are choosing violent protests instead of peaceful gatherings? Chaturvedi blames division in groups. He told EAT news, ‘Violent approach towards highest authority never gives a successful outcome. And even if it does, number of lives affect. This usually happens when external elements join the protest to ruin it. They try to push the demonstration wrongly and misguide the people in it. The other reason is division. If a protest is not carried by unity, chances of collapse increases. A group with no common aim and demands reaches nowhere.’ But he also affirmed that in present, violent protests are the only common sight everywhere.
New communication technologies are helping people to manage gatherings at same place in such large numbers. Platforms like twitter, Instagram, Facebook is not only raising awareness but also connects people from different countries who later engages for enabling movements with each other. How technology is playing a part in global protests? According to Chaturvedi, technology is giving new perspective to the movements. ‘Earlier, Gandhi organized peaceful protests under British rule with no existence of technology. It uses to take number of days for one protest to come live on streets, with number of manual preparations, agendas and plannings. But today, technology has made it much easier. An event or a gathering can be created online with time and venue, and people join it accordingly. Communication has reached its advanced level where speed and masses cannot be trade off’, he said.
Syria is one of the countries that suffered to a large extent and destroyed the mankind after one ‘protest’. The country is still in crisis after years of protest. Taking Syria into consideration, Chaturvedi explained why protest and democracy goes along. He said, ‘Right to protest is a privilege one enjoys under democracy. And if such situation comes, administration prepares beforehand and keeps the possibility of such events under the system. But if any other political system such as authoritarian or totalitarian encounters protest they declare it treason and deals with it intensely and accordingly. And this creates war like situation, usually beginning of a civil war.’
Protest has its power and limitations. If it leads to economic fallout, affects food and fuel prices, it also expands the vision of justice. As per Global Protest tracker, since 2017 more than 132 countries have experienced significant protests, over 400 significant anti-government protests have erupted worldwide. 23% of significant protest have lasted more than three months, and 135 economic anti-government protest have occurred in past 6 years.