New Delhi, Oct. 10 -- As massive unprecedented police crackdown tried to foil the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) called protest of young students and activists in the national Capital on Saturday at Jantar Mantar which remained out of bounds, thousands of protesters took to demonstrations and slogan chanting in a series of scattered protests in other areas.

Detention of over 7,000 protesters, including CJP leader Abhijit Dipke, four former chief ministers and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, helped the government thwart a planned mass mobilisation at Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site in the heart of Delhi, to press for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.

Jantar Mantar wore a deserted look throughout the day, with the deployment of over 30,000 security personnel and multi-tiered barricades in Lutyens' Delhi to keep the protesters away from the area.

Opposition parties likened the situation to one worse than the Emergency, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi urging the youth to "keep protesting" and asserting that "we are going to ensure that this regime and the people who have attacked the Constitution are defeated".

Several opposition leaders, including former chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal (AAP), Mamata Banerjee (TMC), Pinarayi Vijayan (CPI-M) and Manik Sarkar (CPI-M), were detained from multiple locations across the capital as they tried to join the protest called by the CJP.

"This has gone beyond an Emergency; it has become a Super Emergency," Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Banerjee said. Several detained leaders claimed that they were driven around in police vehicles for hours.

CPI (M) general secretary M A Baby, veteran Left leader Brinda Karat, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, activist Yogendra Yadav, lawyer Prashant Bhushan and All India Students' Association (AISA) president Neha Bora were also detained.

Gandhi, who was in Chennai for his Chhatron Ki Goonj event, also said the "core characteristic" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS is "cowardice".

The Congress, which has been holding protests demanding the resignation of the CEC over alleged vote theft, however, maintained its distance from the CJP protest.

In a statement, the CPI(M) said the entire might of the state was brought upon the protesters with massive security deployment, barricading of roads alongwith severe restrictions on movement and communication. "All these constitute a blatant assault on democratic rights to protest peacefully and constitutional freedoms and is a blatant display of authoritarianism,'' it said. The party said that the government's response exposes its fear of popular mobilisation and its determination to suppress dissent rather than answer serious questions about the SIR process. "The right to vote is fundamental to democracy and cannot be undermined through opaque procedures or arbitrary exclusions,'' it said.

Dipke and two CJP leaders, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were detained by Delhi Police from inside the aircraft as soon as their flight from Mumbai landed in at IGI airport here.

In a video shared by the CJP, Dipke could be heard telling police officers who entered the aircraft, "We are here to be arrested, come and arrest us." Before the detention, police personnel told the CJP leaders that they did not have permission to hold their protest at Jantar Mantar.

Dipke said CJP leaders were being detained as if they were criminals. He said that even former prime minister Indira Gandhi did not do this, adding that it amounted to dictatorship.

Rathee, who lives abroad and had come to join the CJP protest against CEC Kumar, was detained by police from his residence in Gurugram's Sector 56.

In the afternoon, scores of protesters hurled stones at security personnel near Akashwani Bhawan on Imtiaz Ali Marg after jumping barricades, injuring two police personnel. The protesters were quickly detained by security personnel.

New Delhi virtually turned khaki with the deployment of over 30,000 police and paramilitary personnel ahead of the CJP protest. Waves of barricades lining the streets, the closure of 45 metro stations and intensive checks at the city's border points, railway stations, bus terminals, hotels and other sensitive locations left the capital gridlocked.

More than 7,000 protesters were detained today across Delhi, including more than 2,000 in New Delhi area, police sources said.

In a pre-recorded video message released soon after his detention, CJP leader Dipke said the organisation's in-charge, Ajinkya Shinde, would lead its protest at Jantar Mantar. The CJP asserted that the protest would continue nationwide, with or without its leaders.

Police informed Dipke about the death of his grandmother in Maharashtra and offered possible facilitation for his journey to his hometown on humanitarian grounds. Dipke's paternal grandmother, Savitribai Shankarrao Dipke, 85, died at her home in Santuk Pimpri village in Maharashtra's Hingoli district around 11.30 am on Saturday following a prolonged illness, family sources said.

Activist Sonam Wangchuk said he would consider launching a peaceful protest, including a hunger strike or a march in Leh or Delhi, if the detainees were not released within 24 hours. Wangchuk had joined the earlier 36-day agitation of the CJP at Jantar Mantar on the NEET paper leak issue that had ended on July 25.

Hitting out at the Opposition, the BJP said that the protest meant to take the city "hostage" turned out to be a "flop show", accusing Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi of spreading anarchy in cahoots with foreign powers.

BJP leader and MP Ravi Shankar Prasad said India was not a banana republic, adding "we are not opposed to protests, but you have weaponised street protests because of your electoral defeat.'' His comments were directed aimed at the Congress.

A large number of police personnel detained groups of protesters from several places, including Hanuman Temple, Akashwani Bhawan, Safdarjung Flyover and Kerala House. Regular announcements were being made by the police at Jantar Mantar, instructing people and mediapersons not to gather in one place.

BJP president Nitin Nabin accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Kejriwal and the CJP of attempting to destabilise the country with the backing of foreign forces.

Several journalists claimed that they were detained. Reporters alleged that they were detained despite displaying their press identity cards, and that their official phones were seized by police personnel before they were taken to detention buses along with other protesters. Visuals circulating showed journalists displaying their press identity cards from inside the buses.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.