CJP Calls Nationwide Stir As Delhi Police Crackdown Intensifies

New Delhi:The agitation demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar escalated on Sunday as Delhi Police detained over 200 protesters, including CPM Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas, who was allegedly assaulted and hospitalised, prompting the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) to call for a nationwide movement. The crackdown continued for the second consecutive day despite Supreme Court directions against illegal detentions and harassment of journalists.

"Modi and Shah will pay a heavy price for this. The Delhi Police have become mad dogs," an angry Brittas wrote on X after he was allegedly manhandled by police personnel and collapsed on the steps of a police bus during his detention. He was taken to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where CPM general secretary M.A. Baby and RJD MP Manoj Jha visited him.

Brittas said he had written to the President, Rajya Sabha Chairman and Chief Justice of India, seeking urgent intervention, accountability for the police personnel involved and action over the alleged breach of parliamentary privilege.

"Delhi Police has crossed all limits," the CPM said, alleging that its MP was brutally attacked and left injured by the roadside.

For the second consecutive day, central Delhi resembled a fortress as protesters defied heavy security arrangements and attempted to march towards Jantar Mantar, demanding Kumar's resignation over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

With Jantar Mantar remaining out of bounds, protesters converged on Connaught Place, where streets and bylanes became scenes of confrontation between demonstrators and police personnel. Raising slogans of "Gyanesh Kumar isteefa", protesters tried to breach barricades but were stopped and bundled into police buses.

Several protesters were allegedly injured in police action, while journalists covering the demonstrations were also detained. Protesters accused the police of using excessive force and alleged that members of right-wing groups joined in assaulting demonstrators. Delhi Police registered 20 FIRs over the two days, including cases involving alleged assaults on police personnel.

Among those detained was All India Students' Association president Neha Bora, who clung to a barricade as security personnel dragged her away. The Students' Federation of India (SFI) alleged that male police personnel assaulted women protesters, including its leader Aishe Ghosh. It also claimed that Father Biju Xavier, vicar of Sacred Heart Church, was detained while filming police action.

Unfazed by the crackdown, the CJP announced that its agitation would spread across the country.

"Jantar Mantar 2.0 is on. We are on the streets; we will stay on the streets. We will abide by the Constitution," Ms Ghosh declared at a press conference.

CJP leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, released from preventive detention on Sunday morning, vowed to intensify the campaign until the CEC resigned. They urged political parties to join hands against the SIR exercise, maintaining that the issue concerned the voting rights of citizens and not merely the interests of political parties.

"The protests are on... Protests will happen not just in Delhi but the whole country. This protest will not stop till Gyanesh resigns," Ranka said.

The Congress has announced a nationwide agitation for Monday, while Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi has announced a march to the Supreme Court.

The three CJP leaders were released after being produced before an executive magistrate, subject to maintaining peace for one year. Dipke subsequently left for Nagpur to attend the last rites of his grandmother, who died on Saturday.

Reacting to the conditions imposed on their release, Das said, "They have said there should be no breach of peace for a year. The breach of peace has been caused by Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Gyanesh Kumar."

Accusing the Centre of creating an "Emergency-like situation" through train cancellations, mass detentions and restrictions on demonstrations, Das said the government could have invited protesters for talks instead of preventing them from assembling at a designated protest site.

Ranka also drew parallels with the Emergency. "Even in 1975, trains were not shut," he said, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah of turning an agitation against the Election Commission into a confrontation with the government.

As the CJP prepared to take its agitation beyond Delhi, Sunday's confrontations signalled no immediate end to the standoff over the CEC's resignation.