Former IPS officer and ex-Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai on Wednesday launched a scathing attack against the Central government on Wednesday over the detention of CJP protesters in New Delhi. The remarks triggered a sharp retort by the BJP.
The former BJP leader also slammed the tendency to label any protesters “anti-India” and “foreign agents”, calling it a “tiring and boring” narrative.
“Lastly, enough of this anti-national thing. FCRA is controlled by MHA. All agencies don’t report to the opposition parties in the country. All the embassies outside are equipped with enough people to track any Indian national in hand in glove with foreign enemies. It’s honestly very tiring and boring to see all protests and statements against the central government being called as anti-national and funded by forces outside. Sadly, that’s a pity!”
The former cop-turned politician, who resigned from the BJP in the June this year, recalled in a post on X, Narendra Modi’s 2011 statement, made as Gujarat Chief Minister, slamming the midnight police crackdown on anti-corruption protesters at Ramlila Maidan. I have a feeling the central government forgets it’s been in power in Delhi for 12 plus years and still manufactures an enemy at all times to keep itself relevant.
“In 2011, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, stated that if his hands had not been tied, he would have gone to Delhi and waged a war against the Central government”, he noted. “In my opinion, what the Hon PM said then was absolutely right, and there is nothing wrong about it”. “Today, you could be jailed indefinitely; your surety bonds could be rejected; and, surprisingly, a Special Executive Magistrate will play circles around you when he/ she is empowered to deal with preventive bond cases”, he said referring to the arrest of CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, who were finally released on Wednesday after seven days in custody. “If you question the violation of due process of law in a democracy, you would be called names, and a barrage of attacks would follow, including being labelled a Foreign Agent,” Annamalai said in his post. “So, I would like people to ask the questions again, even if it makes some of them uncomfortable, and I wish the Central Government would answer them instead of resorting to whataboutism,” he argued.
