Asserting that they are unfazed by the mass detentions on Saturday, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and multiple student organisations have defiantly vowed to march to the Jantar Mantar every day until Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resigns or is removed over allegations of “vote chori” and “collusion” with the ruling BJP.
CJP leader Ajinkya Shinde, who was designated to lead the protest by Dipke in his absence, declared, “Every day, there will be marches to Jantar Mantar from now on, until Gyanesh Kumar is sacked as CEC.”
CJP representatives made this announcement as their leadership, including founder Abhijeet Dipke, remained in detention along with hundreds of others after a police crackdown across Delhi following a call to gather at the protest site in the heart of the national capital. “From Sunday, student protests will spread to different corners of the country. They will peacefully demonstrate everywhere, and wherever they are blocked by police barricades, that area will become a ‘Jantar Mantar’.”
They decried what they termed “brutal torture of innocent protesters” and said they did not know where Dipke and others had been taken after being picked up by cops from the plane as soon as their flight landed in Delhi around 11 am. Srijan Bhattacharyya, General Secretary of the Student Federation of India (SFI), called for the “broadest possible unity against this dictatorial regime”, targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
