On Saturday 10 October, the capital of India, New Delhi prepared itself for another round of protests with barricades sealing key roads, loudspeakers blaring warnings and security personnel fanning out across central Delhi ahead of the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) proposed protest.
Delhi has rolled out an extensive security grid ahead of the CJP stir, deploying 25,000 police and paramilitary personnel, restricting access at 45 metro stations and stepping up surveillance at borders, railway stations, bus terminals and other sensitive locations.
In a crackdown ahead of the demonstration, Delhi Police has now also detained CJP leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka from an Air India plane minutes after it landed in Delhi, while around 150 people were detained across the New Delhi area, including YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, with the assistance of Gurugram Police.
The Cockroach leaders had planned to block the streets of the capital and create another stir to hamper the government. The sucess of the previous protest seemed to have boosted the morale that such stunts would be rewarded once again. However the government in the light of the chaos caused last time have decided to act preemptively.
Traders demand protests to be shifted out of the Capital
The Connaught Place market will be shut on Saturday in view of the protest called by the CJP at Jantar Mantar, the New Delhi Traders Association (NDTA) said, citing concerns over public safety and potential damage to property.
In a statement, NDTA Joint Secretary Amit Gupta said the decision was taken to safeguard lives and property, pointing out that thousands of people visit Connaught Place on weekends. The traders’ body claimed the closure would result in losses worth crores of rupees for businesses in the prominent commercial hub.
Additionally, Chairperson of Chamber of Trade and Industry, Brijesh Goyal claimed that due to the proposed protest and closure of markets, the traders will lose around Rs 2,000 crore.
While acknowledging citizens’ right to protest in a democracy, Gupta said demonstrations should not come at the cost of public safety, business losses or disruption of essential services, which could bring the city to a standstill and inconvenience residents.
The NDTA also urged the government to shift protest sites to larger, open areas away from city centres and markets to minimise disruption to businesses and the public.
Government says ‘plans of anarchists have failed’
A spokesperson for the ruling party termed the Cockroach Janata Party’s (CJP) proposed protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar a “flop show”. The BJP MP claimed that the “anarchists” who wanted to hold Delhi “hostage” have failed.
“Jantar Mantar’s story is not India’s story. What is happening at Jantar Mantar, what you can see on TV and a few social media handles, is not India’s story. India is calm and going ahead under good governance. We have been seeing that a few anarchist forces have been spreading anarchy in a corner of Delhi for the past few days. But today the anarchists have failed. The flop show of anarchist elements has completely collapsed.”
“There was an attempt to hold India, the national capital, captive; that there be arson here, that there be violence here. But today, ‘loktantra’ has triumphed over bheedtantra,” the BJP MP said.
He alleged that the protesters had attempted to hold the country and the national capital hostage and were seeking to create violence.
“They were trying to hold India hostage, make the national capital hostage. They wanted violence,” he said.
The remarks came amid a political row over the CJP’s proposed demonstration against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The outfit had called the protest over allegations of voter-list manipulation during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and changes relating to Form 6, which is used for voter registration.
