CJP heads for Connaught Place with the Tricolour as police promise action

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) will try to fill Central Park in Connaught Place with the national flag at 5 pm on Friday, two days after two of its leaders were sent to Tihar. Delhi Police have made it plain they do not want the gathering, and the heart of the capital’s shopping district is likely to be under heavy guard by evening.

Party founder Abhijeet Dipke has called the protest “Lehra Do Tiranga”. It follows the jailing of the CJP’s co-conveners Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, who were remanded to five days of judicial custody on Wednesday after climbing into the de-notified Jantar Mantar site with the Tricolour. “We will show that waving a tiranga is not a crime,” Dipke wrote.

Four demands

Dipke set out the party’s terms on Thursday evening at a press conference at the Press Club of India, where he shared the platform with AISA president Neha Bora, actor Prakash Raj, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal, SFI leader Aishe Ghosh, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan and Sheikh Salauddin of the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union.

The CJP wants Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign at once over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. It also wants Das, Ranka and every other detained protester released, an end to what it calls police brutality, and Jantar Mantar restored as a protest site.

Dipke turned his fire on the Prime Minister. When the Leader of Opposition and former chief ministers took to the streets and were detained, he asked, “For whom? For one Gyanesh Kumar.” He went on: “Why should we not believe that Gyanesh Kumar is helping Narendra Modi win elections?” He also recalled the train curbs and Metro station closures that came with the CJP’s 10 October protest call, and the deployment of security personnel from Jammu and Kashmir in Delhi.

What the police have said

The police set out their position in court on Thursday. Hearing a plea by Anil Kumar Gupta, a garment vendor at Palika Bazar beneath Central Park, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma was told by Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma that the police would act against Dipke. The court recorded his assurance that “all possible measures under the law will be taken” and listed the case for 3 November.

“This protest has to be stopped,” Gupta’s counsel, senior advocate Sachin Puri, argued, telling the bench that Central Park is not a designated protest site.

Security staff were putting up barricades along the Outer Circle on Thursday, and senior officers were due to meet to settle security and traffic plans. Fresh traffic diversions around Connaught Place are expected, though no advisory had been issued by early Friday. Earlier CJP calls brought road closures and shut Metro stations across central Delhi.

Who is coming

The Aam Aadmi Party has said it backs the protest, and Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders said this week that waving the Tricolour is not a crime. Whether their parties will send workers to Central Park is not yet clear. Dipke has asked supporters who cannot reach Delhi to hold Tiranga marches in their own towns.

Das and Ranka remain in judicial custody.