Police on Wednesday detained Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders and protesters as they marched from Panvel to Mumbai’s Vidhan Bhavan demanding that the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) be named after the late peasants’ leader Loknete Dinkar Balu (DB) Patil. Despite the detention, protestors continued marching towards Sanpada.
Senior inspector Bala Kumbhar said permission for the march had been refused because prohibitory orders under section 144 were in force due to the Maharashtra legislature session being underway and a Red alert issued for heavy rain. Several police vans were deployed.
“Any unlawful assembly or procession will invite legal action,” he said.
The march was organised by the Loknete DB Patil Airport Naming Action Committee. The march began from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue in Panvel. Former MLC Balaram Patil said, “Let the police do their job. If they arrest us, we will not abandon our stand.”
Police stopped the march within minutes of its start, detaining several leaders, activists and protesters, and escorting them into waiting police vans. Women protesters lay down on the road and in front of police vehicles while officers attempted to remove them.
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The march follows the indefinite hunger strike launched by youth activist Rashmita Popeta that reignited the airport naming movement just days before NMIA is scheduled to commence international flight operations on July 15.
Popeta said, “We are holding a peaceful agitation for DB Patil’s name. Arrest us, but you cannot silence this movement.”
Patil, from a police van urged supporters not to worry about the detained leaders and to continue the march peacefully towards Sanpada.
Bhiwandi MP Suresh “Balya Mama” Mhatre said peaceful demonstrations during an assembly session were a democratic right. “If ordinary citizens are denied the right to protest peacefully, it is wrong. There appears to be pressure on the police,” he said.
By late afternoon, after protesters were detained across Navi Mumbai, organisers announced a temporary suspension of the day’s agitation.
Calling it a tactical pause, Mhatre said the campaign would continue “with greater intensity and determination” until the airport was officially named after DB Patil.
He announced that a planning meeting for the next phase of the movement would be held on July 20.
The demand to name NMIA after DB Patil has remained one of the region’s most emotive political issues for more than a decade. Although the Maharashtra Cabinet approved the proposal in 2021, it is still awaiting the Centre’s approval.
In May, the Supreme Court declined to direct the Union government to decide the issue within a fixed timeframe, observing that naming public infrastructure is an executive policy matter.
Last month, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis reiterated that the state had completed all formalities and was pursuing the proposal with the Centre. Protest leaders said Wednesday’s march will mark the beginning of a sustained agitation until the Centre formally approves the long-pending naming proposal.
