THE national capital was turned into a fortress on Saturday as police launched a sweeping crackdown, detaining CJP leader Abhijeet Dipke, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee and nearly 7,000 protesters, foiling their bid to reach Jantar Mantar, while the Opposition denounced the situation as “worse than the Emergency.” Dipke and two other CJP leaders, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were detained by Delhi Police from inside the aircraft as soon as their flight from Mumbai landed in the national capital. The CJP leaders had arrived here to lead the protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Several INDIA bloc leaders, including former Chief Ministers Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, Pinarayi Vijayan and Manik Sarkar were detained by Delhi Police on Saturday as they attempted to join the protest at Jantar Mantar demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over alleged irregularities in electoral rolls. The detentions took place at multiple locations across the capital amid heavy security, barricades and restrictions on movement in view of the demonstration called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Besides Kejriwal, Banerjee, Vijayan and Sarkar, others detained included CPI(M) general secretary

 

M A Baby, veteran Left leader Brinda Karat, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, activist Yogendra Yadav and lawyer Prashant Bhushan. Kejriwal was detained outside his Lodhi Estate residence while marching towards Jantar Mantar with AAP leaders and workers. As police personnel moved to take him away, party workers tried to prevent his detention. Police personnel lifted him by his legs and chest and carried him towards a police bus. Those party leaders detained with him included Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, Delhi unit chief Saurabh Bharadwaj, MLA Kuldeep Kumar and national media in-charge Anurag Dhanda. Senior AAP leader Gopal Rai was also detained while protesting at the party office. Before his detention, Kejriwal urged young people across the country to protest against alleged electoral malpractice.

 

The plan was to assemble at Jantar Mantar, but it was not to be. A sea of khaki and blue-green fatigues, metal barriers and buses parked askew on streets turned India’s address of dissent into a fortress on Saturday, scattering protesters across Delhi, with small groups raising slogans, changing routes and trying to regroup, before being detained. By 5 PM, at least 7,000 people were detained. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) had called for a demonstration to demand Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, accusing him of masterminding voter-list manipulation during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll and other irregularities related to Form 6, used for voter registration. But with heavy security deployment preventing protesters from reaching the designated venue, what was meant to be a collective gathering soon spilled into streets, intersections and alternative meeting points across Delhi.

 

Saturday’s protest is the latest in a series of demonstrations that have rocked New Delhi this past week, including one by Congress activists led by Rahul Gandhi. A new protest by the INDIA Opposition bloc is scheduled for Monday. Trinamool Congress chief and former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said the situation in Delhi has gone “beyond Emergency,” as she was detained along with party leaders who were protesting there against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision exercise. Banerjee, along with TMC joint secretaries Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen, Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam, Lok Sabha MP Pratima Mondal and former MP Saket Gokhale held a dharna at a bus stop on South Avenue after they were allegedly stopped by police from heading to Jantar Mantar, nearly 5 km away, to take part in the protest called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).

 

TMC’s Delhi office is at 61, South Avenue, allocated to party leader Nadimul Haque. In a video shared by the CJP, Dipke could be heard telling police officers who entered the aircraft, “We are here to be arrested, come and arrest us.” Before the detention, police personnel told the CJP leaders that they did not have permission to hold their protest at Jantar Mantar. Dipke said CJP leaders were being detained as if they were criminals. He said that even former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi did not do this, adding that the current situation amounted to a “dictatorship”. Former Chief Minister of Keralam Pinrayi Vijayan, former Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and CPM MP John Brittas were also detained by police. Rathee was detained from his residence in Gurugram’s Sector 56 on Saturday ahead of the CJP’s proposed protest at Jantar Mantar. Rathee, who lives abroad, had come to join the demonstration against the CEC.