‘Jantar Mantar 2.0 is on’: CJP, student activists vow to continue protests

Hours after being released from detention, Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders on Sunday (October 11) vowed to intensify their agitation against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, saying the protests would spread beyond Delhi to other parts of the country.

At a press conference, CJP co-convenor Saurav Das accused the Modi government of creating an “emergency-like situation” and turning the state against its own citizens. He said the authorities could have invited a delegation for talks instead of preventing protesters from assembling at a designated venue.

‘This protest will not stop’

Das alleged that the police had detained the party’s leaders without formal notice, seized their phones and denied them access to lawyers. He also questioned the condition imposed on their release, requiring them to maintain peace for a year. “The breach of peace has been caused by Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Gyanesh Kumar,” he said.

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“The protests are on... Protests will happen not just in Delhi but the whole country,” Das added. CJP co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka said the agitation would continue until Kumar resigned. “This protest will not stop till Gyanesh resigns,” he said.

Das alleged that the authorities had taken their phones without issuing seizure memos, raising concerns about what might have happened to the devices while they were in police custody. “We suspect what all they must have done to our phones. We think they hacked our phones. Or cloned our phones. Maybe they planted evidence,” Das said, according to media reports.

Ranka’s allegations

Ranka alleged that the developments over the past 72 hours had brought back memories of the Emergency, citing the cancellation of trains and the alleged harassment of people travelling to Delhi to join the demonstration. He also claimed that he, Das and CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke had been “kidnapped” from an aircraft.

Dipke’s grandmother died while he was in detention. Ranka criticised the authorities for the manner in which Dipke was informed of the death, alleging insensitivity. Dipke left for his ancestral village after his release, while the party vowed to continue the agitation.

Police excesses allegations

Das also accused Delhi Police of targeting journalists covering the demonstrations. He criticised police personnel for allegedly entering Gurudwara Bangla Sahib wearing shoes and without covering their heads while removing protesters, and appealed to the Sikh community to support the agitation.

Student activist Aishe Ghosh, meanwhile, said the movement would continue despite the restrictions. “Jantar Mantar 2.0 is on. We are on the streets; we will stay on the streets. We will abide by the Constitution,” she said.

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Ghosh alleged that right-wing groups had been allowed to assault CJP protesters and raised concerns over the alleged assault of a minor girl and a boy.

CJP legal team head Ratna Singh also alleged that police personnel had threatened activists’ families and that Intelligence Bureau personnel had tracked her movements. She questioned the legal basis for restricting activists’ movement.