New Delhi: The hundreds of protesters detained at centres in distant parts of the city have turned the detention sites into mini protest grounds. Mini protests have also sprung up in different areas where protesters have been stopped from going forward.
Amid the Delhi Police’s ongoing crackdown to prevent the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP’s) Jantar Mantar 2.0 protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, over 3,500 protesters have been detained and taken to centres in areas including Bawana, Mundka, Burari, Narela, and Nangloi.
At these detention centres, the protesters refused to back down and continued their sloganeering.
“If we are not allowed to protest at a designated site, we shall create our own Jantar Mantar to protest,” said Srijan, a protester. “This is civil disobedience.”
Protesters at the detention centres are raising slogans and singing the national anthem, he added.
Srijan also alleged the protesters were being treated brutally. “The peaceful protesters have been taken to such faraway police stations, and they don’t even have access to water. They are not being treated as political prisoners, but as criminals, they were detained brutally,” he added.
A.A. Rahim, a Communist Party of India (Marxist) Rajya Sabha MP, and Students Federation of India (SFI) detainees have allegedly declared the Nangloi stadium “Jantar Mantar 2.0”, and started a hunger strike against “police brutality”. “He has announced a hunger strike with the demands of action against an inspector who misbehaved with women students, and demanding that all the phones and bags snatched illegally by Delhi Police be returned,” Srijan said.
ThePrint tried to get in touch with Delhi Police to ask about the allegations of brutality, but a response is awaited.
Protests must continue: CJP
As she confirmed her detention, All India Students’ Association (AISA) lead Neha Bora also said the movement will not stop. “People are assembling at Safdarjung Flyover. If you are stopped, sit down where you are and hold the line,” Bora said in a social media video.
Meanwhile, taking command of the movement following the detention of senior CJP leaders, organisation in-charge Ajinkya Shinde has hit out at the “authoritarian measures” enforced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the administration’s crackdown is “a sign of institutional panic”.
“The government’s intense fear and desperate crackdowns prove one thing clearly: we have already won half the fight. The solidarity of citizens coming together from across the country has shaken the regime to its core,” he said.
The CJP, he added, will continue its march towards Jantar Mantar. “If your movement is blocked by barricades or police personnel anywhere on the streets, do not stop—start your protest right where you are stopped.”
Authorities have mobilised a massive police and CAPF deployment, shut down entry and exit gates at 45 Delhi Metro stations, cancelled incoming trains, and imposed localised internet blackouts in central Delhi.
“Hundreds of youth activists, supporters, and key public figures—including prominent legal heads and civil society members—have been placed under preventive detention from entry points including IGI Airport, Connaught Place, and border checkposts. Protesters are being moved to temporary containment centers across the capital, including Chhatrasal Stadium and Yamuna Sports Complex,” the CJP said.
Edited by Sunanda Ranjan