Contrived arguments against the anti-CEC protests

There were two important articles last week about the protests in Delhi against CEC Gyanesh Kumar (among many, many more). One was an article in The Indian Express by Sumit Agarwal, professor of finance at National University of Singapore and president of the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research, and Shashwat Alok, associate professor of finance, Indian School of Business. It argued, nonsensically, that the protests impose disproportionate economic costs on the poor and risk undermining the electoral mandate through what it called their coercive actions. The other article appeared in Newslaundry, where journalist M. Rajshekhar recalled what he witnessed when the Delhi Police detained him along with protestors for several hours on October 10, including the fact that despite police claims, personnel were indeed illegally beating protestors inside roving vans fit with inhumane enclosures. What the IE piece got wrong It confuses disruptions imposed by the state with those imposed…