Congress MP Shashi Tharoor slammed regressive curbs in Delhi following the Cockroach Janta Party protest at Jantar Mantar. He said, "A government confident in the fairness of its elections would welcome questions." Police deployed 22,000 personnel, closed 45 Metro stations, and cancelled 250 trains to stop citizens from raising concerns.
New Delhi:
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has slammed curbs in Central Delhi in the wake of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest at Jantar Mantar.
As Delhi Police detained CJP leaders and protesters in the Capital, Tharoor said a "confident government" must welcome questions and added that turning the capital into a fortress would only deepen suspicion.
"A government confident in the fairness of its elections would welcome questions about them, whereas one that turns its capital into a fortress to avoid them only deepens the very suspicions it seeks to suppress," Tharoor posted on X.
"The government should provide answers, not lathis; expression, not repression. Barricades will do nothing to restore faith in the Election Commission, and the sooner it answers the public's questions, the sooner calm will be restored," he added.
Detailing his own experience in the Capital, Tharoor noted that Delhi has rarely seen measures like this.
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"I returned to the national capital after 2 am and have rarely seen anything like what Delhi is witnessing now, with checkpoints every few hundred metres, concrete barriers and spike strips laid across our roads, a war-like deployment of 22,000 police and paramilitary across the city, 250 trains cancelled and 45 Metro stations closed, and reports of young people being detained from their own homes and the streets in and around Delhi - all to prevent citizens from peacefully raising questions about the integrity of our elections."
Decrying the curbs, Tharoor called them "regressive".
"Most regressive (as well as repressive) is the suspension of the internet in the heart of the national capital. Freedom of movement stands completely shackled. Jantar Mantar was designated precisely so that citizens could voice dissent in the centre of Delhi, and today even the roads leading to it have been declared out of bounds."
Tharoor asked why such measures are not taken to make cities safer for women. "One is entitled to ask where this extraordinary manpower and urgency disappear when women in our capital need protection," he said.
Tharoor doubled down on his attack, calling the event Emer-GenZ, a wordplay on Emergency.
"Those detained will have to be released. And if the protesters simply return on Monday, will the authorities lock down the national capital all over again? Our GenZ deserves better than an undeclared Emer-GenZ."
CJP leaders and hundreds of protesters were detained on Saturday in a massive police crackdown to stop the protest at Jantar Mantar against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.