At Ramlila Maidan – historic ground of Anna Hazare, of JP, of Ram Lila itself – INDIA bloc’s Chalo Dilli, Vote Bachao Desh Bachao rally. Leaders in open bus from Mallikarjun Kharge residence to Minto Road-Connaught Place to Ramlila. Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Mamata, Akhilesh, Tejashwi, Farooq, Left. Demand: resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar over SIR deleting 13.3 crore names. Muddy ground after rain, 10,000 police, drone surveillance. Placards: Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhod. Long voter lists displayed by Youth Congress showing deletions.
In West Delhi – Hari Nagar Bus Depot to Tilak Nagar Metro – BJP counter rally. Led by Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Delhi CM Rekha Gupta, Delhi BJP chief Harsh Malhotra, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, H.S. Phoolka, Bansuri Swaraj. Thousands including 1984 victims families. Demand: apology from Congress for 1984 anti-Sikh violence that began Nov 1, 1984. Slogan: Congress hurt Sikh sentiments by holding rally on massacre anniversary.
Paradox noted by you is precise for anasemic analysis: Government also took protest rally. Government hollowed itself to become protesting like opposition.
What is ordinary seme of Government vs Opposition?
Ordinary: Government = state, power, police, EC, administration, files, chair. Opposition = voice, street, demand, placard, foot march. In democracy, government responds, opposition protests. That division is sacred.
To make government protest, what had to be hollowed?
1. Sarkar had to stop meaning power and start meaning victim.
To hold protest rally while in power for 12 years at Centre, with Delhi CM, Delhi Police under Home Ministry, 10,000 police deployed, government had to hollow out satta.
How?
BJP said: we are protesting as Sikhs, not as government. We are remembering 1984 victims. But march was led by Union Minister, CM, MoS. Official figures of 2,733 killed in Delhi were quoted by government itself. Government becomes mourner.
To become mourner, government had to hollow out that it is continuator of state that committed 1984 failure. 1984 was Congress government failure. 2026 government says: we are not state, we are community. So state = Sikh community? State forgets it is state.
Anasemic residue: The same Delhi Police that gave permission to BJP march in West Delhi, barricaded opposition march route in Central Delhi. Police in one place protects protest, in other place controls protest. Same police, two meanings. Government both allows and polices the opposition protest.
2. Protest had to stop meaning demand against power and start meaning demand against memory.
Ordinary protest: you demand something from power – resign CEC, restore votes, give justice. You face power.
BJP protest: demand apology from Congress for 1984 when it was But Congress is not in power. It is opposition in 2026. So protest demands something from another protester. Government protests against opposition.
What was hollowed? Target of protest. To protest against opposition, protest had to stop meaning demand and start meaning deflection. It does not ask EC to do something. It asks history to be remembered on same day to eclipse the present.
3. Ram Lila Maidan had to be hollowed.
Ram Lila Maidan ordinary seme: Maidan where Ram Lila performed, then where JP gave call Singhasan khali karo, where Anna fasted against corruption. It means opposition maidan. Government has Red Fort, Kartavya Path.
On Nov 1, government could not hold rally at Ramlila because opposition booked it. So it found another maidan: Hari Nagar-Tilak Nagar, Sikh dominated colonies, refugee colonies of 1984. To make that equal to Ramlila, it had to hollow out geography: West Delhi = Central Delhi. It is not. Ramlila is symbolic heart. Hari Nagar is periphery.
By holding rally in periphery against the rally in centre, government accepts it is periphery to opposition’s centre for that day. It becomes protester in margin making its protest marginal.
The full anasemic inversion: Government as empty signifier:
Laclau’s chain: earlier we saw Modi became empty signifier against which heterogeneous demands chained. Now on Nov 1, to counter that chain, government itself had to become chain.
Government cannot say “We are EC, we are right”. That would be state defending EC, it looks authoritarian. So it says: “We are also protesters, we also have wounds, 1984 hurt us”. Gujarat riots open as echo . But the Government borrows language of victimhood from opposition.
Thus:
– Government hollowed out its own power to appear powerless Sikh victim.
– Opposition hollowed out its powerlessness to appear powerful protector of Constitution – holding mock impeachment of CEC at Kharge residence Oct 31 presided by former Speaker Meira Kumar.
Result: Both sides protest. No one governs for a day. Delhi sees two protests, no government.
That is why you felt paradox. When government protests like opposition, two things happen:
a) State disappears: Who is responsible for SIR deletions? EC says it is independent. Government says it is protesting 1984. So no one answers 13 crore deletion question. Deletion stays.
b) History disappears: 1984 victims need justice, punishment, compensation, jobs. That needs government files, courts, SIT. Protest does not give that. It gives slogans against Rahul Gandhi. So 1984 justice also stays hollow.
Anasemic analysis shows: Government protesting on same day as opposition does not strengthen government. It hollows government. It says: we have no answer to vote chori allegation except whatabout 1984.
Goanology parallel: In 1961, Portugal protested in UN against Indian invasion while Goa was already liberated. Government in Lisbon protested as victim while being colonizer. It hollowed itself.
When a government that controls the police, ED, CBI, CEC, and Delhi CM, needs to organize street march with placards to prove opposition wrong, it confesses: our institutional power is not convincing. We need street power of opposition to fight opposition.
Opposition’s victory on Nov 1 was not crowd size – 50k per police, 10 lakh per organizers, chairs 28k with 5-7k empty at 3:30 pm. Victory was making government leave secretariat and come to street. This an inversion, a great reversal.
Nov 1, 2026, BJP left Kartavya Path and came to Tilak Nagar lane. For that day, it became what it accuses opposition of being: disruptor, marcher, slogan shouter.
And that hollowing will leave residue: Next time government says “don’t protest, maintain law and order”, street will answer: “But you protested on Nov 1”.
