Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 11: Despite the police crackdown on Saturday to foil their attempt to stage protest demonstration at Jantar Mantar, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Sunday announced widening of their agitation against the alleged electoral frauds and ouster of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, a day after more than 7,000 people were detained across Delhi and in different parts of the country.
“The fight has just begun,” CJP co-convener Ashutosh Ranka said at a press conference. “This protest will not stop until Gyanesh resigns,” he added. “The protests will happen not just in Delhi but the whole country,” CJP leader Saurav Das said, also attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP for allegedly misusing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls.
The CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, and co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were released on Sunday morning by a special executive magistrate (SEM), a day after they were detained by Delhi Police ahead of their agitation at the Jantar Mantar.
CJP chief Abhijeet Dipke had left for his hometown in Maharashtra just after the three were released to attend his grandmother’s last rites. He later posted on X about the terms of their release: “Haven’t signed any bond that says we won’t protest. We will hit the streets again.”
Ahead of their release, officials said YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was also released, but warned against participating in CJP’s stir and heading to the Jantar Mantar.
Over 100 protesters were detained on Sunday as they raised slogans and marched towards Jantar Mantar, with several seen being dragged into police buses, as the protest called by the CJP entered its second day amid heavy security deployment across Delhi. Members of several student organisations, including the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), All India Students’ Association (AISA) and Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS), along with CJP supporters, were detained while trying to march to Jantar Mantar from different parts of the capital.
Meanwhile, the security continues to remain tightened in Delhi, with police keeping a strong presence on all key areas and intersections. The police, which earlier denied CJP to protest at Jantar Mantar citing law and order issues, has also issued a traffic advisory for Sunday, but underlined that the restrictions will be relaxed or regulated based on real-time ground assessment.
Ranka, Das and Dipke were detained from inside an aircraft after their flight from Mumbai landed in Delhi on Saturday morning. They were placed under preventive arrest and produced before an executive magistrate in Delhi Cantonment on Sunday morning, police said. The magistrate released them on the condition that they do not breach the peace for one year.
Ranka alleged the three had been “kidnapped” from the aircraft. Referring to the release condition, the CJP also wrote on X, “No CJP leader has signed any bond that says they will not protest any more. The bond refers to refraining of breach of peace. But participating in a peaceful protest is a Constitutional right and DOES NOT breach peace.” “The breach of peace has been caused by Narendra Modi, [Home Minister] Amit Shah and Gyanesh Kumar,” Ranka remarked.
The leaders demanded that Jantar Mantar be opened to the protesters as a venue. Ranka pointedly accused the authorities of insensitivity in the way Dipke was informed about his grandmother’s death while he was in detention. The DCP Neha Yadav, however, contradicted the claim stating that “As soon as the Delhi Police received information about the passing away of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) Founder Abhijeet Dipke’s grandmother, officers approached him to convey this sad news and offered all possible assistance. They sensitively asked if he needed help with flights, phone calls, or anything else. They repeatedly asked if he wished to speak to his parents, but he declined.”
CJP legal team head Ratna Singh alleged that police personnel had threatened the families of activists and asked them to stop their children from joining the protests. She also alleged that Intelligence Bureau personnel had tracked her movements and questioned the basis for restrictions on activists. “I am a citizen. I have the right to go anywhere. How can you keep me in wrongful detention?” she asked.
Ranka said the past 72 hours had reminded people of the Emergency, imposed by the then PM Indira Gandhi from 1975 to 1977. He said trains were cancelled by PM Modi while “even in 1975, trains were not shut.” Saurav Das also said the Centre created an “Emergency-like situation” and said the authorities could have invited a delegation for talks.
Delhi Metro kept 45 stations closed while the Railways cancelled around 250 trains in view of the Saturday protest. The Supreme Court was told by the authorities on Sunday that operations were now normal.
Das also accused Delhi Police personnel of entering Gurudwara Bangla Sahib wearing shoes and without covering their heads, and of forcibly removing protesters. He appealed to the Sikh community to stand with the protesters.
Student Federation of India (SFI) leader Aishe Ghosh said, “Jantar Mantar 2.0 is on. We are on the streets; we will stay on the streets. We will abide by the Constitution.” She alleged that right-wing groups aligned with the BJP had been allowed to assault CJP protesters.
The BJP has called the CJP an arm of the Opposition. BJP chief Nitin Nabin has alleged that they were looking to hurt India with actions directed by “foreign forces.” Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta called the CJP the “B-team” of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal was one of four former chief ministers detained and released on Saturday. Gandhi has been holding protests on the same issue for months. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said “every individual has the right to express dissent in a democracy”, but people must not “forget that spreading anarchy is not anyone’s right.”
Explaining the decision to deny permission for the latest protest, DCP Neha Yadav said an undertaking submitted earlier had not been adhered to. She claimed that previous protests had witnessed violence, arson and stone-pelting despite permission being granted. She said permission for the latest demonstration was denied on law-and-order grounds and that Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) had been invoked in New Delhi. Yadav added that Abhijeet Dipke, Saurabh and Ashutosh were taken into custody in connection with the matter.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Sanjay Singh accused Delhi Police of using force against protesters, including women, lawyers and journalists, during the demonstrations against the CEC on Saturday asserting that the agitation would continue through peaceful and democratic means.
Addressing a press conference, Mr Singh alleged that authorities restricted people’s right to protest by shutting metro stations, stopping trains, imposing internet restrictions and deploying heavy police forces across the capital. He claimed that more than 6,000 people were detained in Delhi on Saturday and alleged that protesters were subjected to force.
Sporting saffron scarves, raising religious slogans and openly boasting of their willingness to use violence, groups of men moved around central Delhi during Saturday’s protests threatening and assaulting demonstrators despite prohibitory orders being in force.
While four men claiming to be members of the right-wing Hindu Raksha Dal have been arrested for allegedly assaulting students and manhandling women on DDU Marg, videos from the day showed larger groups moving around protest areas in full view of police personnel, openly expressing support for police and administration and threatening those demonstrating against the Election Commission (EC).
The two men also appear in several older videos alongside Hindu Raksha Dal chief Pinki Chaudhary, a history-sheeter based in Ghaziabad. It was this very purported video that Chaudhary subsequently shared on X on Saturday, claiming responsibility for the attack and identifying the men as members of his organisation. “These are my workers from the Hindu Raksha Dal, an organisation that delivers on its promises,” he wrote, adding that the outfit has the power to set the minds of “cockroaches” straight and would continue to do so.
Meanwhile, activist Anjali Damania was among the dozens of persons detained on Sunday when they arrived at Shivaji Park in central Mumbai’s Dadar area to take part in a protest in support of the CJP, police official said.
Damania was intercepted near the iconic ground and taken to an undisclosed location in a private vehicle, the officials said. “As I reached Shivaji Park in support of CJP, police officers came in plainclothes and detained me. All the police personnel were in plain clothes, and I do not know where they are taking me,” Damania said. Officials said most of those detained in the vicinity have been shifted to Shivaji Park police station. Some have been taken to nearby police stations, they added.