Former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday slammed the BJP-led Centre over the arrest of Cockroach Janata Party leaders, assuring the country's youth that "your Didi is with you today and forever".
CJP leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde were put under preventive arrest by Delhi Police on Tuesday on charges of alleged trespass into the Jantar Mantar area, which was recently denotified as a designated venue of demonstrations, and violating peace bonds the first two activists had earlier signed.
The trio had allegedly breached barricades to enter the Jantar Mantar area without authorisation, raised slogans demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation and displayed the National Flag.
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While Shinde was granted bail, Das and Ranka were sent to a five-day judicial custody and lodged in Tihar Jail after they were produced before an executive magistrate on Wednesday morning.
"We, and many generations before us, have fought strongly for our democratic rights. We must continue to do so. I strongly condemn the arrest of Ashutosh and Saurav of the CJP. These moments are about us all, pledging and standing up to fight unitedly to protect our great democracy," Banerjee wrote on X.
She called the move an "attempt to intimidate and silence an entire generation".
"This is unacceptable. We must never surrender our constitutional rights. This murdering of democracy is happening in many parts of the country. At this moment, 14,000 of our people in Bengal are facing the brunt of police and political atrocities," she claimed.
Banerjee had joined the opposition protests in the national capital demanding immediate resignation of the CEC.
Backing an agitation initiated by the CJP and supported by the INDIA bloc, she raised serious concerns over "vote chori" (vote theft) and alleged electoral roll manipulation tied to the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.
"A government that has forgotten that 'it is of the people, by the people, for the people' is nearing its end. To the millions of young people I say: Your Didi is with you - today and forever! Let us stand together and save our Mother India. Jai Hind! Vande Mataram! Joy Bangla!" Banerjee wrote.
Earlier, the Diamond Harbour MP of the Mamata-led TMC faction, Abhishek Banerjee, took a swipe at the BJP for the arrests of the CJP leaders.
"The so-called biggest nationalists are now arresting Indians for unfurling and waving the Tricolour in their own country, an act which, according to the Union Government, constitutes a breach of peace. Welcome to the @ BJP4India's new Pakistanified Bharat," Abhishek wrote on X.
The faction's leaders Derek O'Brien and Mahua Moitra also spoke out against the Delhi Police move.
Several opposition leaders, including Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi, former Tamil Nadu CM and DMK chief MK Stalin, AAP leader and ex-Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, CPI general secretary D Raja, NCP MP Supriya Sule and Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Maharashtra MLA Aditya Thackeray, have also thrown their hats in the ring, raising concerns about the arrests.