Disabled protestors beaten up in front of Rahul Gandhi's house

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi may hold forth repeatedly on empowerment of citizens, but a group of disabled people were reportedly assaulted by security personnel in front of his New Delhi residence for staging a protest. The protest, by a group of disabled people and activists, was initially held in front of the Mughal Garden near President Pranab Mukherjee’s residence. The protestors were demanding that the president not sign an ordinance through which the UPA government hopes to pass the disability rights bill before the government is dissolved in the next few weeks. [caption id=“attachment_1406697” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi. PTI[/caption] “From the president’s house, we moved ahead to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) office to demonstrate and another group went to Janpath to Rahul Gandhi’s office. Since he was out for campaigning, we wanted to meet his secretary,” said one of the participants of the protest. The protestors in front of Gandhi’s house got restless as news arrived that those who were protesting outside the AICC office had been beaten up by police. Simultanously, protestors said, policemen also attacked the protestors in front of the Congress Vice President’s office. Since the beginning of the budget session this year, the last Parliament session of the UPA II tenure, Delhi has witnessed several protest marches demanding the passage of the long awaited Disability Bill. The approach of the UPA government of passing the bill through an ordinance has many activists questioning the good faith of the government. Yesterday’s protest was held to stop the passage of the bill through an ordinance as activists believe that this would do grave injustice and cause harm to the disabled community rather than being an empowering legislation. “The bill is highly condemnable. It has scope for rampant discrimination against the disabled community,” says Rajive Raturi of Human Rights Law Network. “Not only does the bill legitimise  discrimination against the disabled but it also takes away the reproductive rights of the disabled,” he says. One major allegation against the Disability Bill proposed by the UPA government is that the bill overrules some of the landmark Supreme Court judgements in favour of the disabled community regarding employment. “The clauses of this bill leaves the disabled people at the mercy of the employer, who has the right to decide the extent of disability. It stands directly in contradiction with some of the major Supreme Court judgements in favour of the community,” says Raturi. According to activists and the members of the community, the passage of this particular bill will have a devastating effect on the disabled community, which now says that it will wait for another year and another new government but will not accept this bill.