‘Open Emergency-Like Situation’ Across the Country, Says CJP; We Will Keep Protesting Till the CEC Goes
New Delhi: Just a few hours after they walked out of detention, the Cockroach Janta Party leaders stood at the Press Club of India on Sunday and spoke the way people actually speak when they’re angry and tired.
Saurav Das looked at the reporters and said the whole country right now feels like an open emergency. The kind we last saw in 1975. “Delhi has been turned into a cantonment,” he said. Thirty to forty thousand security people everywhere. Fifty-seven metro stations shut. Rajdhani trains cancelled. Markets forced closed on a Sunday. Ordinary people made to suffer so that they start blaming the protestors instead of the government.
He said the Modi government has put the state against its own citizens. They could have simply called a few of us for talks. Instead they locked the capital down.
The CJP wants Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign. They say the Special Intensive Revision of voter lists is full of problems and the right to vote itself is under threat. The Election Commission denies everything, of course.
Das, Ashutosh Ranka and founder Abhijeet Dipke had been picked up the day before as soon as they landed in Delhi. On Sunday a magistrate let them go after they put up Rs 50,000 surety each and agreed not to “breach the peace” for one year.
Das almost laughed when he talked about that condition. “They say we should not breach the peace for one year. The people who breached the peace are Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Gyanesh Kumar.”
Ranka was plain. “This protest will not stop till Kumar resigns.” He said Jantar Mantar is a designated protest site. Peaceful protest there cannot be called a breach of peace. “Protests will happen, not just in Delhi, but across the country,” Das added.
Saturday had been heavy. Police say about 2,500 people were detained. Other numbers going around are closer to 7,000. Central Delhi sealed. Mobile networks cut in places. Force brought in from Kashmir, Bengal, Naxal areas. The CJP says phones of detained activists were taken without proper papers and they fear the phones have been compromised. Journalists covering the protests were also hassled, according to them.
Opposition leaders are saying the same thing. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called it an undeclared emergency. He and Rahul Gandhi plan to meet the Chief Justice of India. Gandhi said the more they try to suppress Gen Z, the angrier the young people will get.
Police keep saying everything was done by the book to keep order. The heavy deployment will stay because more protests are expected. The Supreme Court has already said no illegal detention of peaceful protestors and that metro and trains should run normally.
The CJP started as a Gen Z response after a court remark about jobless youth and cockroaches. They are not a registered party. They just keep saying the same thing: free and fair elections cannot happen with this CEC. Kumar has to go. The SIR has to be fixed.
At the press conference they made it clear. We did not sign any bond that stops us from coming back on the streets. The protest is on. It will not stop until the Chief Election Commissioner resigns. And right now, they say, the country is living through something that looks and feels exactly like an open emergency.
Sources: Economic Times, News9live, BBC, New Indian Express, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Free Press Journal, Deccan Chronicle, PTI.
‘Open Emergency-Like Situation’ Across the Country, Says CJP; We Will Keep Protesting Till the CEC Goes
New Delhi: Just a few hours after they walked out of detention, the Cockroach Janta Party leaders stood at the Press Club of India on Sunday and spoke the way people actually speak when they’re angry and tired.
Saurav Das looked at the reporters and said the whole country right now feels like an open emergency. The kind we last saw in 1975. “Delhi has been turned into a cantonment,” he said. Thirty to forty thousand security people everywhere. Fifty-seven metro stations shut. Rajdhani trains cancelled. Markets forced closed on a Sunday. Ordinary people made to suffer so that they start blaming the protestors instead of the government.
He said the Modi government has put the state against its own citizens. They could have simply called a few of us for talks. Instead they locked the capital down.
The CJP wants Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign. They say the Special Intensive Revision of voter lists is full of problems and the right to vote itself is under threat. The Election Commission denies everything, of course.
Das, Ashutosh Ranka and founder Abhijeet Dipke had been picked up the day before as soon as they landed in Delhi. On Sunday a magistrate let them go after they put up Rs 50,000 surety each and agreed not to “breach the peace” for one year.
Das almost laughed when he talked about that condition. “They say we should not breach the peace for one year. The people who breached the peace are Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Gyanesh Kumar.”
Ranka was plain. “This protest will not stop till Kumar resigns.” He said Jantar Mantar is a designated protest site. Peaceful protest there cannot be called a breach of peace. “Protests will happen, not just in Delhi, but across the country,” Das added.
Saturday had been heavy. Police say about 2,500 people were detained. Other numbers going around are closer to 7,000. Central Delhi sealed. Mobile networks cut in places. Force brought in from Kashmir, Bengal, Naxal areas. The CJP says phones of detained activists were taken without proper papers and they fear the phones have been compromised. Journalists covering the protests were also hassled, according to them.
Opposition leaders are saying the same thing. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called it an undeclared emergency. He and Rahul Gandhi plan to meet the Chief Justice of India. Gandhi said the more they try to suppress Gen Z, the angrier the young people will get.
Police keep saying everything was done by the book to keep order. The heavy deployment will stay because more protests are expected. The Supreme Court has already said no illegal detention of peaceful protestors and that metro and trains should run normally.
The CJP started as a Gen Z response after a court remark about jobless youth and cockroaches. They are not a registered party. They just keep saying the same thing: free and fair elections cannot happen with this CEC. Kumar has to go. The SIR has to be fixed.
At the press conference they made it clear. We did not sign any bond that stops us from coming back on the streets. The protest is on. It will not stop until the Chief Election Commissioner resigns. And right now, they say, the country is living through something that looks and feels exactly like an open emergency.
Sources: Economic Times, News9live, BBC, New Indian Express, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Free Press Journal, Deccan Chronicle, PTI.
@Rohit Manral
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