Government Scared, Has Turned Anti-CEC Protests Against Themselves: CJP

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Sunday accused the government of being “scared” and alleged that protests against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar had been turned into a broader agitation against the government itself.

Addressing a press conference hours after being released by a Delhi court following preventive arrest, CJP co-convener Ashutosh Ranka alleged that the country had witnessed an unprecedented crackdown on peaceful protesters over the past 72 hours.

“In the last 72 hours, the country has witnessed peak authoritarianism. Thousands of peaceful protesters who wanted to stage an agitation at a designated protest site have been detained from across the country,” Ranka said.

Blaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the situation, he alleged that the circumstances had deteriorated to such an extent that CJP members had been “kidnapped” from an aircraft the previous day.

Comparing the security arrangements in Delhi with the period of the Emergency imposed in 1975, Ranka said the recent events had surpassed even the accounts of that period that he had heard from his parents.

“One thing has become clear: the fight that was against the Election Commission and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has been turned by PM Modi and Amit Shah into a fight against themselves,” he claimed.

Ranka further alleged that the Election Commission, whose responsibility is to safeguard and strengthen democracy, was functioning at the behest of Modi and Shah to help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win elections.

Referring to the death of CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke’s grandmother on Saturday, Ranka accused the Delhi Police of insensitivity in handling the situation after Dipke received the news.

He alleged that police personnel arrived with cameras and microphones, turning the moment into a spectacle. According to Ranka, Dipke repeatedly requested permission to speak to his cousin because his parents have heart conditions and become anxious easily, but the police did not agree to his request.

Declaring that the movement was only beginning, Ranka said the government should be ashamed of turning the protest into what he described as a war.

Shortly before the press conference, Dipke announced that he was travelling to his hometown in Maharashtra to attend his grandmother’s last rites. He maintained that the CJP would neither retreat nor be intimidated.

Expressing condolences over Dipke’s loss, Ranka said the party stood firmly by its founder during his time of grief.

“Abhijeet is not someone who will make a spectacle of his loss. We all stand with him in this moment of grief,” he said.

The CJP also thanked opposition leaders who participated in the protests. Ranka specifically acknowledged four former chief ministers — Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, Manik Sarkar and Pinarayi Vijayan — for joining students and young people on the streets the previous day.

He thanked them for what he described as their efforts to defend democracy and stand with the protesters.

Ranka also alleged that members of left-wing student organisations, including the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and the All India Students’ Association (AISA), had been detained “brutally”.