Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 15: The Police on Thursday assured the Delhi High Court of taking all possible measures to prevent any disruption in the commercial activities after the court refused to restrain the call given by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke to waive national tricolour at the Central Park in the heart of Delhi on Friday evening as a mark of protest against the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and demanding roll back of the “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR) of the electoral rolls.
The High Court’s bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma was on Thursday hearing a plea by a licensed Palika Bazar vendor, who claimed the protest would affect the rights of traders and sought a direction to the police to regulate it in line with the law laid down by the Supreme Court.
His lawyer argued that traders and vendors would be “on the streets” if they lost another weekend to closures in central Delhi during the festive season. “In the heart of Connaught Place Central Park, a protest is called. It seems we are being targeted. This is not a site (for protest). They have already started shutting down. This is the Dussehra weekend. This protest has to be stopped,” the lawyer argued.
The petition was filed by Anil Kumar Gupta, a licensed street vendor at Palika Bazar. He sought to prevent the gathering announced for 5 pm on Friday at Central Park in Connaught Place, which is situated directly above the underground market.
The petition alleges that protests and prolonged traffic blockades in central Delhi have repeatedly disrupted access to markets, causing vendors and other small traders to lose their daily earnings. It urges the authorities to enforce existing restrictions on demonstrations and keep public roads and pedestrian pathways accessible.
The court took on record the Delhi Police’s assurance that it would take “all possible measures under the law” to regulate and control the gathering and refused to restrain the CJP and other organisations from continuing with the call.
This comes days after the police detained hundreds who intended to go to the Jantar Mantar road near Connaught Place for the CJP’s protest call of October 10 over alleged electoral fraud. The Congress-led Opposition’s INDIA bloc is also holding protests on the issue, and this week the two parallel protests against the BJP-led central government appear to be converging. The AAP, which has largely stayed away from the INDIA bloc, has announced it’ll participate in the CJP’s protest, where Dipke has asked participants to carry the national flag.
Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma appeared for the authorities and told the court that steps had already been taken to control the CJP’s activities. Heavy security will be in place in and around Connaught Place and Jantar Mantar ahead of the CJP’s proposed protest on October 16, with several companies of paramilitary forces already stationed in the national capital, police sources said. Police will deploy personnel at strategic locations, erect barricades and regulate the movement of protesters and commuters to maintain law and order and prevent any untoward incident, a source said.
Mr Dipke addressed a press conference at the Press Club in New Delhi on Thursday along with All India Students’ Association national president Neha Bora, Students’ Federation of India leader Aishe Ghosh, All India Students’ Federation national president Viraaj Devang and actor Prakash Raj among others. Mr Dipke alleged that students and youth had been dragged off the streets of Delhi over the past fortnight.
He said Opposition leaders who joined them had also been detained, and linked the crackdown to Prime Minister Narendra Modi “protecting” Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Dipke also noted that CJP members Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka are in jail “for having raised the flag” at Jantar Mantar earlier this week; they are charged with trespass as the site was denotified as a protest venue after the CJP’s original October 10 call.
“For the past 10-15 days, students’ organisations and the youth of Delhi have been out on the streets, being dragged away. When the Opposition joined them, they were detained too, including the Leader of the Opposition [Rahul Gandhi] and former chief ministers like Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and Pinarayi Vijayan. And all this for whom? For one man, Gyanesh Kumar,” Dipke said.
Das and Ranka were sent to five-day judicial custody and lodged in Tihar Jail for allegedly violating their peace bonds and trespassing into Jantar Mantar, which has been denotified as a protest area. Dipke said they would show that waving the Tricolour was not a crime and urged those unable to travel to Delhi to organise Tiranga marches in their respective cities. He also expressed apprehension that he could be jailed as well.
“As you know, Saurav and Ashu have been jailed only for unfurling the tricolour. I urge all patriots who love the tricolour to come to Central Park, Connaught Place at 5 pm on October 16 with the national flag. We will show that waving a tiranga is not a crime,” Dipke said.
“Those who cannot come to Delhi, take out tiranga marches in your cities in the evening, and show that the tricolour is our pride,” he said.
“I also may be jailed after this, but I am not worried. Tricolour is my pride, and I will raise it,” the CJP founder added.
AISA activist Neha Bora alleged that journalists covering the protests had been beaten, dragged and detained for hours despite carrying press cards. She also alleged that cameras had been snatched from them.
Meanwhile, also on Thursday, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Election Commission, the Chief Election Commissioner and the two Election Commissioners on petitions filed by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders over decisions related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Referring to the INDIA bloc’s October 12 march from Barakhamba Road to the court premises, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said: “Nobody can browbeat the judiciary.”
The top court also issued notice to Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav and others on a separate plea against that march. It directed that CCTV footage from the court premises during the protest be preserved.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court issued notices on a series of petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, as well as the mass detentions of protesters, journalists and others during anti-CEC protests in Delhi last week.
Mr Dipke also accused the government of attempting to influence electoral outcomes through alleged voter deletions and asked whether the names of over 13 crore voters being struck off was a “setting.” Why is Gyanesh Kumar so important to Narendra Modi? Why should we not believe that Gyanesh Kumar is helping Narendra Modi win elections?” Mr Dipke asked.
Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday clarified that the Union Home Secretary’s affidavit before the Supreme Court, in response to a contempt notice, should not be interpreted as an unconditional apology. “Whenever a contempt notice is issued by the Honourable Supreme Court, it is required that the party responding to the notice must begin their affidavit with an unconditional apology. Only thereafter all other facts and arguments are presented. This is mandatorily followed in every contempt petition,” the PIB statement said.
The YSRCP supremo Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has said the arrest of CJP leaders would not solve anything and called for the restoration of “trust in the electoral process,” in light of the row over the SIR of electoral rolls. “Trust in the electoral process must be restored. The arrests of Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka do not solve anything; it only aggravates the situation,” Mr Reddy said in a post on X. The former CM said, “a proactive approach always yields better results than a reactive stance. The system has a flaw that needs to be corrected.”
Students’ Federation of India leader Aishe Ghosh, speaking during the press conference at Press Club of India, urged citizens to unite to defend democracy, saying she placed her faith in the people rather than the ruling BJP. “Gyanesh has helped them win the whole country,” she alleged. “We don’t have hopes with the BJP, we have hopes with our citizens. It is time for all of us to unite. The country for which Bhagat Singh fought and Gandhi sacrificed, we have to save this country,” she said.
Ms Ghosh also referred to the treatment of the parents of Ankita Bhandari, a resort receptionist who was murdered in Uttarakhand in 2022, alleging that they had been dragged and treated brutally. Criticising what she described as the impunity enjoyed by people accused of serious crimes, she said, “Rapists are being garlanded.”
Meanwhile, the CJP Goa unit on Thursday said it did not endorse or support any statements, slogans or actions that hurt or disrespect anyone’s religious beliefs or sentiments, following criticism over an “anti-Hindutva” slogan raised at its rally in Panaji. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had warned of stern legal action against those who shouted “Hinduvad Murdabad” during CJP’s protest on October 11.
A video shared on social media showed a group of young girls raising the slogan during the CJP-led protest. “We would also like to make our position absolutely clear. CJP respects all religions, castes and communities. We do not endorse or support any statements, slogans or actions that hurt or disrespect anyone’s religious beliefs or sentiments,” the statement posted on Instagram by CJP Goa reads.