Delhi Police’s novel attempt to match protests by size and site

It was very considerate of the Delhi Police to advertise the availability of Jantar Mantar as a designated place of protest and even helpfully indicate the maximum number of people the venue can accommodate. Of course that presupposes a certain amount of modesty on the part of potential agitations: that they will accurately gauge the support for their cause to be above or within the stipulated limit.

Protesters should presumably be grateful that the Delhi Police has also suggested Ramlila Maidan as the alternative, in case the proposed protest is expected to cross 5,000 people. But since the maidan is rather capacious, a 10,000- or even 25,000-strong protest runs the risk of looking foolishly overconfident of its support base.

So what recourse is there for the medium-sized agitations? Perhaps the police can rustle up a list of locations of varying sizes and direct the protesters to apply for permission accordingly. In fact, there could be a case for the police forces and designated authorities across the country to pool their resources and offer a longer composite list of venues. The danger, however, is venues booked according to initial conservative estimates turning out to be disastrously small.

Would the police then insist that the protesters stick to their stated limits or move to another, larger site?