‘Worse than Emergency’: Kejriwal, AAP leaders detained amid crackdown

“The Delhi Police has detained us. The youth of this country have now awakened, and they will not be intimidated by Modi ji’s dictatorship,” Kejriwal said, adding that Gyanesh Kumar would have to resign as people were no longer willing to tolerate alleged vote theft.

In a post on X, the former Delhi Chief Minister said the situation was worse than it had been during the Emergency and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of attempting to suppress democracy to cover up alleged electoral fraud. He also demanded the Prime Minister’s resignation.

The AAP said several senior leaders and workers were detained as they attempted to join the protest organised by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) against alleged vote theft. The demonstration also sought Kumar’s resignation.

Kejriwal accused the Centre of deploying the police and paramilitary personnel across Delhi to prevent people from participating in the protest. He alleged that people were being picked up from the streets and stopped from travelling to the protest venue.

He also named CJP leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, along with Dhruv Rathee and Ratna Singh, among those who had been arrested. Kejriwal appealed to citizens, particularly the youth, to unite to “save the country”.

Senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh accused the Modi government of imposing an Emergency-like situation to protect those allegedly involved in vote theft. He claimed that Delhi had been turned into a cantonment and alleged that train services to the Capital had also been stopped.

“If he suppresses people’s voices, resistance against him will grow across the country, and anger will build among the people,” Singh said, warning the government against using force to deal with the protest.

Delhi AAP president Saurabh Bharadwaj accused the police of manhandling Kejriwal and criticised the deployment of a large number of police and paramilitary personnel. He said the demonstrators intended to express their views peacefully and urged the government to allow them to do so without violence.

Bharadwaj compared the restrictions with the treatment of Mahatma Gandhi during the Dandi March, arguing that even the British had allowed Gandhi to travel to raise his voice against the government. He said the denial of space for peaceful dissent could create an atmosphere of anarchy.