Security was tightened across New Delhi district with multiple barricades: Reports
NEW DELHI: The I.N.D.I.A. bloc, the Aam Aadmi Party and Opposition-backed youth groups held protests on Gandhi Jayanti against alleged “vote chori” and irregularities in the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, targeting Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The I.N.D.I.A. bloc, comprising about 20 parties, launched a month-long “save democracy” campaign across districts nationwide on Friday.
In Delhi, more than 1,000 students, social activists and political leaders who arrived in small groups and tried to march towards Jantar Mantar were detained after police-imposed restrictions on gatherings of five or more people. Reports said many protesters were detained in their own localities.
Security was tightened across New Delhi district with multiple barricades. Internet access was restricted and about a dozen nearby Metro stations were closed ahead of the protest. Slogans such as “Ek kachori, do samosa, Gyanesh tumhara kya bharosa” and “Gali-gali mein shor hai, Modi-Gyanesh vote chor hai” rang out in Connaught Place, where most business establishments remained shut.
Those detained in Delhi included former chief minister Atishi, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, AAP leaders Saurabh Bharadwaj and Sanjeev Jha, RJD MP Manoj Jha, CPM leader Brinda Karat, CPI national secretary and MP P. Sandosh Kumar, CPI Delhi secretary Prof. Dinesh Varshney, AISF general secretary Dinesh Seerangara, social activists Yogendra Yadav and Nikhil Dey, All India Student Association president Neha Bora and NSUI national president Vinod Jakhar.
The CPM said Delhi Police had “converted the entire city into a fortress” and detained people approaching Jantar Mantar after denying permission for a gathering at the designated protest site.
“The police brutally manhandled the protesters and threw them into the buses, injuring many,” the party alleged. It said police took more than two hours to detain all the Democratic Youth Federation of India and Students’ Federation of India activists, which it said “demonstrates the stiff resistance put up by the youth.”
The party alleged that denying permission to protest at Jantar Mantar curtailed the constitutional right to agitate.
“Under the BJP-led Union government, democratic rights are being drastically curtailed, and the denial of permission to protest, even at Jantar Mantar -- the designated site for protest -- demonstrates how intolerant this government has become,” it said.
The CPM accused Kumar of being “instrumental in converting the ECI into a back office of the BJP's election work” and demanded his removal.
Karat, who arrived with youth wing workers, said every street in Delhi had become Jantar Mantar.
“Godse was Gandhi's murderer. People of Godse's ideology are in power in the Centre. Today they are murdering democracy through vote theft,” she said. “About 13 crore citizens have been removed from the voter roll. Gyanesh Kumar should resign; the law for appointment of election commissioners should be changed.”
“Today is Gandhi Jayanti... It is shameful that they are behaving like this...” Mr Jha said as he was dragged into a bus.
“This is all 'Godse-vadi' people can do on Gandhi Jayanti. They don't understand the essence of Gandhi,” he had said earlier. Asked whether permission had been obtained for the protest, he said: “Protest with permission... In Gandhi's country?”
