New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) Former Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, former Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar, CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby and veteran party leader Brinda Karat were among several Left leaders detained by police on Saturday as they sought to join a protest at Jantar Mantar demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
CPI(ML) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, AISA president Neha along with activists Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan were detained separately during a protest march.
The activists, along with several AISA members, were marching toward the Safdarjung Flyover, raising slogans against the CEC when the Delhi Police detained them. CPI(ML) L leader Balaji said they were being taken in different vehicles
Leaders including Baby, Karat, and others were forcibly detained outside Kerala Bhawan, where some CPI(M) leaders had stayed overnight, as they attempted to proceed to the protest site amid heavy security deployment and barricading across the national capital.
The leaders raised slogans against the government before being bundled into buses and taken away. “Amit Shah, dekho hum Jantar Mantar aa gaye,” they shouted, Karat told PTI.
Vijayan later alleged that the authorities were afraid of the opposition and accused the Delhi Police of detaining elected representatives and driving them around in circles for an hour to prevent them from speaking out.
“Such high-handed tactics are a blatant attack on our democratic rights, but we will not be intimidated,” he said in a post, adding that the government’s “panic” was showing.
Rajya Sabha MP A A Rahim, along with detained activists of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), announced a hunger strike at Nangloi Stadium, where around 300 students had been detained.
The protesters demanded action against and an apology from a Delhi Police inspector who allegedly misbehaved with students. They also sought the return of mobile phones and bags which they alleged had been illegally taken away by police.
The detentions came amid widespread restrictions in the capital ahead of protests against Kumar called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Sarkar was detained along with CITU All India General Secretary Comrade Elamaram Kareem, student activists and trade union leaders at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Bawana.
In a statement, the CPI(M) accused the Delhi Police, which functions under the Union government, of turning the capital into a fortress and detaining people approaching the protest site.
“Despite all their efforts, hundreds of youth and students led by the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), and various other student and youth organisations gathered at the site, braving police highhandedness and the barricades,” the statement said.
It alleged that police personnel had manhandled protesters and thrown them into buses, injuring many.
“The fact that it took more than two hours for the police to detain all the DYFI and SFI activists itself demonstrates the stiff resistance put up by the youth,” the statement said.
The CPI(M) said the denial of permission to protest at Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site, demonstrated the government’s intolerance and sought to curtail the constitutional right to protest.
“The movement to save democracy and for the neutrality of State institutions such as the ECI will continue,” the statement said.
The Left party demanded the immediate removal of Kumar, a halt to the SIR exercise and the release of all detained protesters. PTI AO RT
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This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.