Hope mediation in Shaheen Bagh protest would lead to a fair conclusion, says Ashwani Kumar

Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Ashwani Kumar on Wednesday hoped that the appointment of mediators by the Supreme Court to talk to Shaheen Bagh protesters would lead to a "fair and just conclusion".

"It seems to be the first step in the process of settlement under the supervision of the Supreme Court and since this panel is mandated by the Supreme Court, I assume it will have some credibility with the CAA protesters as well as also with the government," Kumar told ANI.

"It is quite clear that in a democracy, the right to protest is non-negotiable, but it is equally clear that there has to be some kind of a settlement because in no democracy can you have an unending protest. So, I hope that this step will lead to a fair and a just conclusion to a debilitating event that has gripped the nation for the last several weeks," he added.

On Wednesday, after interacting with the anti-CAA protestors at Shaheen Bagh, senior advocate Sadhana Ramachandran, one of the three mediators, said that they will hold talks with the protestors on Thursday too.

"We met them and listened to them. We asked them if they want us to come back tomorrow as it's not possible to complete the talks in one day. They said they want us to come back tomorrow, so we will," Ramachandran had told media here.

The Supreme Court had on Monday mandated senior lawyers Sanjay Hegde and Sadhana Ramachandran besides former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah to go and talk to protesters at Shaheen Bagh area to convince them to hold the agitation at an alternative site. The apex court has fixed the matter for further hearing on February 24.

People have been staging a sit-in protest at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh area since mid-December last year against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).