An unprecedented security clampdown and the detention of over 7,000 protesters, including CJP leader Abhijit Dipke, four former chief ministers and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, helped the government thwart a planned mass mobilisation at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Saturday to press for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Read more: CJP protest: ‘This is not arrest, this is not detention’, Dhruv Rathee alleges he was ‘abducted’
Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site, wore a deserted look throughout the day, with the deployment of over 30,000 security personnel and waves of barricades in Lutyens’ Delhi to keep the protesters away from the area.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi should answer whether there was democracy or an Emergency in the country,” Shivakumar said, describing the detention of protest leaders, including those picked up from the airport, as a major “embarrassment for India.”
Read more: DK Shivakumar struggles to keep government rifts and problems at bay
“People have the right to protest in a democracy and raise their voice.Nobody can silence them. The authorities should allow them to meet the Election Commission and other leaders and respond to their concerns,” he told reporters.
The CM said people in public life must be prepared to face criticism and accept it when something goes wrong. The incident, he alleged, reflected “cowardice.”
Responding to a question on the Congress not participating in Saturday’s CJP-called protest, Shivakumar said the party would act independently and had not been taken into confidence by the organisers.
“We do not want to stop them (CJP). Some of our INDIA bloc partners participated, and it is their right. We will hold our own protest tomorrow,” he said.
Shivakumar said Congress legislators had been asked to be in Delhi, adding that he would also travel to the national capital to fight for voters’ rights.
“We want every voter in this country to be protected and retain the right to vote. You cannot delete their names,” he said, alleging that large numbers of voters had been removed from electoral rolls in Karnataka as well during the SIR that is underway.
Asserting that the Congress would fight to protect voters, the CM alleged that Dalits, minorities and backward classes were being targeted through the deletion of names from electoral rolls for political gains.
“This is inhuman. This is authoritarianism, not democracy. We will definitely fight against it and protect our people,” he said.
