New Delhi, Oct 12: The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Monday said it would give the Delhi Police 24 hours to respond to its request for permission to hold a protest at Jantar Mantar, as the party continued its agitation against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
CJP Co-Convenor Saurav Das said peaceful protest was a constitutional right and asserted that people would continue to exercise it. He said the party had left it to the Delhi Police to suggest a date and time for the proposed demonstration, while making it clear that the request should not be kept pending indefinitely.
“Peaceful protest is a right, a constitutional right, and people are already exercising it. People will continue to hold peaceful protests. The police always complain that we should approach them 10 days in advance. This time, we have left the choice to them and asked them to suggest a date and time for our protest. We are leaving everything to them, but we are also saying that they should not keep the matter pending indefinitely. We will give them a 24-hour ultimatum. Let us see what happens after we speak to them,” Das said.
Meanwhile, CJP Co-Convenor Ashutosh Ranka, upon arriving at the Parliament Street Police Station, said the party would approach the Delhi Police to seek a date for holding the demonstration at Jantar Mantar. “We are going to ask Delhi Police for a date to hold a protest at Jantar Mantar. We hope the police will give us a date. If they do not, we will make another call within 24 hours…” Ranka said.
The latest developments come a day after the CJP alleged that the government was “scared” and was turning the protests against CEC Gyanesh Kumar into an agitation “against themselves”. Addressing a press conference on Sunday, hours after being released by a Delhi court following preventive arrest, Ranka claimed that the country had witnessed “peak authoritarianism” over the preceding 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,” he said. Ranka further claimed that the agitation, initially directed against the Election Commission and CEC Gyanesh Kumar, has been turned into a confrontation with the government.
“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.
IANS