“Police officers who arrested the two girls in Mumbai shud be immediately dismissed. That's minimum that the govt ought to do,” tweeted activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal.
“Now you can't ask questions about why there should be a bandh? Did anyone notify the police that this is actually a democracy?” Mumbai-based author Jerry Pinto wrote angrily on his Facebook wall.
In Mumbai-based communications professional Kumar Manish's view, the arrests were an “oppressive way of muzzling voices”.
“It is unfortunate and deplorable that Maharashtra Police, a state functionary, acts and reacts within couple of hours for an action which is within the laws enshrined in the Constitution of India… We are living in a democracy, let us not make it ‘demo-crazy',” he added.
Many others IANS spoke to in Mumbai preferred not to be identified though they condemned outright the arrests and the vandalism that followed. A telling comment perhaps on the forces at play in India's busy commercial capital and its neighbourhoods.
