By Dr. Gyan Pathak
“Jantar Mantar has been reclaimed! We have entered Jantar Mantar and now we are being detained! But this is a message to all of us young gen! We can do it!” said CJP’s chief spokes person Saurav Das in a social media post after he was detained on Tuesday October 13. Delhi Police also detained along with him, CJP’s national spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka, who asked the Modi government, “Hands off Jantar Mantar”. CJP’s Ajinkya Shinde was also detained. The founder of CJP Abhijeet Dipke claimed that party members carrying the national flag sneaked into Jantar Mantar and said in a post, “You cannot denotify the resistance, Narendra Modi.”
These are the latest signals that anti-CEC protesters are not going to stop protesting at Jantar Mantar despite it was denotified as protest site yesterday October 12. CJP has signalled that they would make every other place a Jantar Mantar if they were stopped to go ahead to Jantar Mantar, to raise their demands asking resignation of CEC and electoral reforms.
CJP representatives went on Monday, October 12 to Parliament Street police station demanding permission for protest at Jantar Mantar and provide a date for their demonstration within a 24-hour ultimatum. However, within hours the Union Ministry of Home denotified as designated protest site, and suggested three alternative sites. Barring the Ramlila Maidan, the two other sites are far off from the Parliament and the Central Government offices and ministries.
Even Ramlila Maidan is a restricted protest site and it costs ₹50,000 a day plus deposit of ₹55,000. Moreover, the venue is not available for now, with only three dates are available in December. The combined cost of booking Ramlila Maidan will cost ₹1.21 lakh a day. This situation will compel the protestors to reclaim Jantar Mantar as protest site, or make numerous places in Delhi a Jantar Mantar.
Dipke, commenting on INDIA bloc’s protests said, “Narendra Modi’s fear is evident from the fact that he has removed Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site. He thinks protests will stop if Jantar Mantar is no longer a designated protest site, but that is not going to happen. Jantar Mantars will now emerge across the country.”
In the meantime Disha Students Organisation, Naujawan Bharat Sabha, and Revolutionary Workers Party have also protested at Connaught Place area against the denotification of Jantar Mantar as a protest site, removal of CEC and scrapping of SIR. “Jantar Mantar is ours, of the people. Throwing us to far off places like Burari is not going to help,” said protesters, calling “It is time to take a joint call.”
NSUI members also held protest demonstrations near Connaught Place metro station today, and they were also detained. Several flash protests are also expected after 4 PM.
In the meantime, Delhi Police have registered FIRs against INDIA bloc for their march to the Supreme Court on October 13. Police said that no permission was granted for the march. The mega “March for Democracy” was led by the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and other leaders of the bloc. They went to Supreme Court and filed a petition seeking a complete disclosure of records and decisions of the Election Commission of India (ECI) on SIR exercise and an independent probe into allegations of unilateral exercise of power by CEC Gyanesh Kumar which led to deletion of over 13 crore voters. However, it was not listed for hearing today on account of over a dozen clerical defects in the petition. There were several other petitions to be heard. CJI led bench has deferred hearing, on account of one of the judges was not well, but sitting on the bench. Petitioners themselves proposed to defer the hearing in such a situation. The cases will be heard on October 15. CJI Surya Kant asked the petitioners to cure the defects in the petitions.
The Union government informed the Supreme Court that its response to petitions alleging illegal detentions, shutdown of public and rail transport, including Metro service, in Delhi during October 10 protests is ready but needs more fine-tuning. The bench also extended the time for the government to file the reply by October 15.
INDIA bloc parties, CJP, AISA, SFI, AISF and many others have vowed to continue the anti-CEC protests until their demand of removal of CEC Gyanesh Kumar is met. The number of political parties, civil society organisations, lawyers, students, youths, academicians, public personalities, and common people are increasingly supporting the movement, which is now taking a pan-India shape.
In Delhi, situation is particularly tense, and there are indications of not only continuance of the movement but also its likely escalation. That is why, in a letter to Union Ministry of Home, Delhi police has sought an extension of the deployment of 273 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPR) in Delhi till October 20. They have cited the possibility of protests by the CJP and other organisations. Police have flagged the possibility of demonstrations at several sensitive locations in Delhi, including Jantar Mantar, ECI office, Parliament, and India Gate.
RPWI, protesting at Connaught Place today, has alleged that many RSS goons have been sexually assaulting women here, and police did not protect them, while we have been detained, brutally beaten till one of our members fainted. RPWI representatives asked, “Why such preferential treatment by the police?”
CJP’s legal wing head Ratna Singh has alleged that detained CJP leaders were not allowed to meet their lawyers and their phones have been confiscated. (IPA Service)
