BANGALORE: If the Hyde Park in London is famous for being a speaker’s platform, Bangalore can boast of it’s own venue. Freedom Park in Seshadri Road is the one in spotlight. Freedom Park is gaining more popularity for staging protests and dharnas, especially among political parties.The old Central Jail which was revamped in 2009 was named as Freedom Park. It witnessed major developments during 1977. Former Prime Ministers like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, H D Devegowda, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, former minister D H Shankar Murthy and not just them, even the present ministers Ashok and Suresh Kumar were in jail here during emergency period.A different kind of political protestThe political parties are now utilising the same place, however for a different reason.In July alone, out of 13 days of various protests, seven of the protests were from political parties. On Saturday too there was massive protest to demand the resignation of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa at Freedom Park.While earlier, from July 9 to 15, the place was occupied by former Chief Minister H D Kumarswamy who was on a hunger strike demanding CBI probe in his own family’s wealth when BJP government alleged illegal assets in his family.He chose Freedom Park as the state government denied him permission in front of Vidhana Soudha.The Bahujana Samaj Party too held a protest rally last month.Apart from these political parties, there was a protest rally by pre university teachers, ECS pensioners associations, autorickshaw drivers, farmers and people from many other sections of the society.A place that’s freeFive acres of land at Freedom Park was earmarked for holding protests and demonstration in the year 2009.This is because the police demanded a designated place for holding protests and demonstrations to ensure that agitators were prevented from using the public roads which would disrupt road traffic and be a bothesome affiar for commuters.BBMP’s takeAccording to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials, they do not charge any fee from the protestors. “We give it for free of cost with a few conditions — they should not damage the place, they should not dig any pits for any pillars or posters and they should keep the place clean,’’ officials said. But BBMP charges for private programmes conducted in the park. “We have collected around two lakh from such organisers,” officials said.Speaking of LondonHyde Park in London is one of the largest parks in the city.It is also a royal park. Apart from the famous rose gardens and rock concerts it hosts, Hyde Park is most noted for its ‘speaker’s corner’.It is at the speaker’s corner that mass demonstrations are generally held in the city. The Chartists, the Reform League, the Suffragettes and the Stop The War Coalition have all held protests in the park.
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