Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has criticised restrictions imposed across central Delhi ahead of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest at Jantar Mantar, describing the measures as regressive and warning that they could deepen public distrust.
Delhi Police detained CJP leaders and hundreds of protesters on Saturday as authorities moved to prevent the demonstration against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, reports NDTV.
Tharoor said a government confident in the fairness of its elections should welcome questions rather than impose sweeping restrictions on the capital.
“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.
Describing the security measures he witnessed after returning to Delhi shortly after 2am, Tharoor said the capital was experiencing an extraordinary level of restrictions.
“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.”
Tharoor also condemned the suspension of internet services in central Delhi and restrictions on movement around Jantar Mantar, a designated venue for public demonstrations.
“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.”
He questioned why authorities did not show the same urgency in protecting women in the capital.
“One is entitled to ask where this extraordinary manpower and urgency disappear when women in our capital need protection,” he said.
In another post, Tharoor coined the term “Emer-GenZ”, a play on the word Emergency, to criticise the restrictions and call for the release of those detained.
“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.”
