Politics in this country never stays quiet for long. Just when you think things have settled a bit, another war of words flares up. This time it’s former Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai going hammer and tongs at the Centre and his old party over the way Delhi Police handled the Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, leaders.
Annamalai quit the BJP on June 5 this year and has been building his own thing called We The Leaders. He’s not exactly known for holding back, and this week he didn’t. On Tuesday he told reporters that while he doesn’t agree with many of CJP’s protest methods or what he called their antics, he fully supports the questions they are raising. Those questions mainly revolve around the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and alleged discrepancies under Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. “It is for the government to answer,” he said. Then he went after Delhi Police, calling their action a “real disservice.” He felt they had taken the law into their own hands, and that locking people up and dragging things out in jail would only make the CJP leaders stronger.
The specific case involves CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka. They were detained after entering Jantar Mantar, which is no longer a designated protest site, waving the national flag and raising slogans. A magistrate court extended their judicial custody. Annamalai didn’t like the look of it. He pointed to issues with the Special Executive Magistrate process, bail hearings, and the rejection of sureties.
By Wednesday he was posting longer messages on X, making it clear he left the BJP months ago and doesn’t need anyone’s selective memory on that. He said questioning due process these days gets you branded all sorts of names, including “foreign agent.” He listed uncomfortable questions for the Centre: why was Jantar Mantar denotified as a protest site, what powers do police officers acting as Special Executive Magistrates really have, why did one arrive late and recuse himself citing a threat to life during a bail hearing for people arrested on October 13, why were eight sureties rejected, and what about reports of pellet guns and SOP violations during earlier NEET protests. He even dragged in an old statement by Narendra Modi from 2011, when Modi was Gujarat chief minister and said that if his hands weren’t tied he would have gone to Delhi and waged war over the crackdown on anti-corruption protesters at Ramlila Maidan.
Annamalai also took a dig at the BJP for what he saw as free publicity for CJP. He mentioned a BJP MLA burning a cockroach effigy during Dussehra celebrations and asked whether the party was actually opposing CJP or helping it grow bigger by making it look like a bigger player. “Does it want the opposition votes to split?” he asked. At this rate, he said, CJP couldn’t have asked for a better PR team.
The BJP didn’t stay silent. Tamil Nadu unit spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy hit back hard. He said the rule of law applies to everyone and that Annamalai was blurring the line between peaceful protest and deliberate law-breaking. CJP leaders were denied permission for Jantar Mantar on clear grounds, he pointed out, and they responded by climbing locked gates and barricades. Thirupathy also accused Annamalai of double standards on the SIR exercise. When he was still in the party, Annamalai had defended the revision of electoral rolls, talked about fake voters in Tamil Nadu, and criticised the DMK for opposing it. Now, after quitting, the same man was lending support to those questioning the process through CJP, Thirupathy said. He even referred to Annamalai’s earlier debate with Shashi Tharoor where he had backed SIR as fair and necessary.
It’s the kind of exchange that shows how quickly positions can shift once someone is outside the party tent. Annamalai keeps stressing he doesn’t endorse every tactic CJP uses, only their right to raise issues and the need for the government to respond instead of reaching for labels or preventive detention. The BJP side insists no one is above the law and that entering a denotified site and obstructing police is not protected protest.
The CJP leaders’ custody was eventually up and they were released, but the larger argument isn’t going away. Questions about protest spaces in Delhi, the use of special executive powers, bail procedures, and how dissent is handled keep coming up. Annamalai’s intervention has turned a local Delhi police action into a broader political flashpoint, especially in Tamil Nadu where his every word still carries weight.
Whether this helps his new political outfit or simply keeps him in the news is another matter. For now, the former IPS officer turned politician has drawn a clear line: disagree with the methods if you want, but don’t shut down the questions or the right to ask them. The BJP, for its part, is treating it as an attempt to score points by shielding those who break the rules. The war of words is out in the open, and neither side looks ready to back down quietly.
Sources: India Today reports on Annamalai’s statements and BJP response (October 21-22, 2026); Indian Express coverage of his X posts and Modi 2011 reference; Hindustan Times on his defence of protest rights and free publicity claims; News18 on Thirupathy’s “rule of law” rebuttal; The South First and Outlook India on the custody issues and Annamalai’s earlier remarks supporting the questions raised by CJP.
@Rohit Manral
