‘Undeclared Emer-genZ’: Shashi Tharoor slams Delhi clampdown on Jantar Mantar protest day

The protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Election Commission in New Delhi was called for by the Cockroach Janata Party.

Heavy police crackdown and security deployment in the national capital in light of the Cockroach Janata Party's (CJP) scheduled protest at Jantar Mantar has drawn flak from Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who slammed the Centre for “completely shackling freedom of movement”.

Shashi Tharoor slammed the Centre for heavy police deployment in the Capital ahead of the CJP's protest. (PTI)

The protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by the Election Commission was called for by the CJP to demand Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation over alleged irregularities in the revised voter roll.

Key CJP leaders including Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das, and Ashutosh Ranka were detained along with hundreds of protestors and journalists trying to gather in Central Delhi.

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‘Rarely seen anything like this in Delhi’

Tharoor, stating that he arrived in the national capital sometime after 2am on Satiurday, slammed the Central government for “a war-like deployment of 22,000 police and paramilitary across the city, 250 trains cancelled, 45 metro stations closed, and reports of young people being detained from their own homes and the streets” with the use of “checkpoints every few hundred metres, concrete barriers and spike strips laid across our roads”.

Describing the situation as something he has “rarely seen” before, Tharoor labelled the move an attempt “to prevent citizens from peacefully raising questions about the integrity of our elections”.

“Most regressive (as well as repressive) is the suspension of the internet in the heart of the national capital,” he added.

“Freedom of movement stands completely shackled. Jantar Mantar was designated precisely so that citizens could voice dissent in the centre of Delhi, and today even the roads leading to it have been declared out of bounds. One is entitled to ask where this extraordinary manpower and urgency disappear when women in our capital need protection,

“Those detained will have to be released .And if the protesters simply return on Monday, will the authorities lock down the national capital all over again? Our GenZ deserves better than an undeclared Emer-GenZ,” Tharoor wrote.

Directly referring to allegations of massive voter disenfranchisement as part of the Election Commission's SIR exercise, Tharoor said that a government confident in the fairness of its elections would welcome questions about them, whereas one that turns its capital into a fortress to avoid them only “deepens the very suspicions it seeks to suppress”.

“The government should provide answers, not lathis; expression, not repression,” he said.

“Barricades will do nothing to restore faith in the Election Commission, and the sooner it answers the public's questions, the sooner calm will be restored. The strength of a democracy is measured by how it treats those who question its working, and by that measure, what we have seen today is utterly shameful and unconscionable,” the Congress MP added.

Massive security deployment as detentions continue

More than 40,000 Delhi Police and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) personnel have been deployed in New Delhi, turning the capital into a heavily-armed fortress to curtail protests. Multiple opposition leaders, journalists, CJP functionaries, and protestors have been detained by cops so far including names like Ratna Singh, MA Baby, Pinarayi Vijayan, and John Brittas among others.

Jantar Mantar, the intended location for the protest, had previously been sealed off by the Delhi Police. All connected roads have been barricaded, with loudspeakers at three key entry-exit points broadcasting warnings in Hindi and English against gatherings, processions, road blockades and other prohibited activities under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).

Following detention directly from their Mumbai-Delhi flight, Dipke, Das, and Ranka have been kept in undisclosed locations. In a pre-recorded message, now shared on the CJP's official X handle, Dipke has asked protestors to follow Ajinkya Shinde, the political pressure group's organisation in-charge, who is now expected to lead the movement.

On the other hand, AISA's National President, Neha Bora, has called for crowds to gather at Dilli Haat instead of Jantar Mantar due to police curtailments in and around Jantar Mantar.