Delhi is really tense right now. Tomorrow, 10 October, the Cockroach Janta Party and a bunch of Left student groups – AISA, SFI, AISF – plus some AAP student outfits want to hold a big protest at Jantar Mantar. They’re demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar step down. The whole thing is over the Special Intensive Revision of the voter rolls. They say there were massive irregularities, lots of names deleted, and they’re calling it vote theft. They want the whole SIR exercise cancelled, the older rolls brought back, and some proper inquiry into how this was done.
Police have said no. Straight up denied permission. Joint Commissioner Nupur Prasad explained it clearly – the application came way too late, not the 10 days’ notice they need. She also mentioned that last time these organisers got permission they didn’t stick to what they promised and ignored the legal directions. Section 163 of the new BNSS is already in force in the New Delhi area, so any gathering is basically banned. DCP Shrishti Pandey has been repeating the same message – no protests allowed at Jantar Mantar or anywhere else while this is on, and if people still gather it’ll be treated as illegal and action will be taken. She’s even asked people to think about their own safety and their families.
The CJP side isn’t listening. Abhijeet Dipke and Saurav Das keep saying the protest is going ahead no matter what. Dipke posted that thousands of young people have already been detained across the country and that this kind of pressure won’t stop them. He says he’ll reach Delhi and walk to Jantar Mantar himself. CJP is claiming around 10,000 people – students, farmers, folks from Dalit organisations – have been picked up while trying to come to the capital. There are videos going around of kids being stopped on trains and buses in different states. SFI and others are saying police visited activists’ homes at night and scared their families. Police haven’t confirmed the exact numbers, but you can feel the heat.
Security is crazy heavy. Nearly 23,000 central force personnel have been brought in. CRPF companies from West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, even Jammu and Kashmir. Delhi Police has its own thousands out. Body cameras are on, roads into the city are being watched, barricades everywhere in the central areas. Warnings are being played on loudspeakers telling people not to gather or break anything. The Noida border side has extra force too.
Travel is a complete mess. Railways has cancelled all Mail and Express trains that were supposed to reach New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin between 4 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon tomorrow. Any train that left after 2 pm today and was due in that window has been stopped at the starting station. Thousands of passengers are already stuck. On the metro, police have asked for the entry and exit gates at 57 stations to be shut – places like Rajiv Chowk, Central Secretariat, ITO, Kashmere Gate and many more – and fewer trains to run. That was supposed to start from 9 pm tonight. Liquor shops are shut today and tomorrow as a precaution. Bars and restaurants can still sell, but the regular shops are closed.
This isn’t the first time CJP has come to Jantar Mantar. Their earlier protests, especially the one in July, turned rough and FIRs were filed. Police have been tracking people who showed up last time, including those with past cases. The Supreme Court heard some petitions today about these heavy restrictions – metro closures, train cancellations – and one of the judges said the measures looked a bit much and that the right to protest has to be balanced with people being able to move around.
Opposition parties are also in the mix. The INDIA bloc has been trying to meet the President over the same Election Commission issues. Aaditya Thackeray called the whole restriction setup an emergency without the courage to say so. The government side keeps saying these steps are needed because of what happened earlier and the open calls for big crowds.
For people living in Delhi, tomorrow means messed-up trains, limited metro access in the centre, no liquor shops, and cops everywhere. For the organisers it’s about whether they can still pull it off. For the police it’s about making sure nothing goes wrong like last time. The demands haven’t changed – Kumar’s resignation, end to the SIR, and proper answers on the voter rolls. We’ll see tomorrow if people manage to reach Jantar Mantar or the security plan holds.
Sources:(Details put together from reports in Scroll, Times of India, Indian Express, India Today, The Hindu, National Herald, Mathrubhumi and police statements that came out on 8 and 9 October.)
@Rohit Manral
