Shashi Tharoor slams Delhi crackdown, calls it ‘Undeclared Emer-GenZ’

• Shashi Tharoor condemns Delhi’s security clampdown ahead of the CJP protest, citing transport curbs and detentions.

• Delhi Police detains hundreds as security is tightened across the capital; police also report preventive detentions of people with criminal records.

• CJP seeks chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over alleged voter-list manipulation and changes involving Form 6.

Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday, 10 October criticised the Modi government over the security clampdown in Delhi during the proposed Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest, describing the situation as an ‘undeclared Emer-GenZ’ and accusing the authorities of suppressing peaceful dissent.

Tharoor, who was in Berlin earlier this week, said he returned to the national capital after 2.00 am and had rarely witnessed anything like the security arrangements currently in place.

‘Checkpoints every few hundred metres, concrete barriers and spike strips laid across our roads, a war-like deployment of 22,000 police and paramilitary across the city, 250 trains cancelled and 45 Metro stations closed, and reports of young people being detained from their own homes and the streets in and around Delhi — all to prevent citizens from peacefully raising questions about the integrity of our elections,’ he wrote on X.

He described the reported suspension of internet services in parts of the capital as particularly regressive, adding that freedom of movement had been ‘completely shackled’.

The MP said Jantar Mantar had been designated as a place where citizens could voice dissent, yet even the roads leading to it had been declared out of bounds. ‘One is entitled to ask where this extraordinary manpower and urgency disappear when women in our capital need protection,’ he wrote.

Warning that those detained would have to be released, Tharoor questioned whether the authorities would impose similar restrictions if protesters returned on Monday. ‘Our GenZ deserves better than an undeclared Emer-GenZ,’ he said.

Tharoor argued that a government confident in the fairness of its elections would welcome questions about the electoral process, while turning the capital into a fortress would only deepen public suspicion. ‘The government should provide answers, not lathis; expression, not repression,’ he wrote.

He added that barricades would do nothing to restore public faith in the Election Commission and that addressing people’s questions was the quickest way to restore calm. ‘The strength of a democracy is measured by how it treats those who question its working, and by that measure, what we have seen today is utterly shameful and unconscionable,’ Tharoor said.

Delhi Police detained more than 500 protesters attempting to reach Jantar Mantar for the proposed CJP demonstration against chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Police sources also said more than 600 people with criminal records had been detained across the capital’s 15 police districts as a preventive measure ahead of the protest. The two figures relate to separate categories reported by police and should not be treated as a single, verified total of protesters detained.

Police personnel have been deployed at strategic locations across Delhi, particularly along routes leading to Jantar Mantar and other sensitive areas. Security measures include heightened surveillance, checks on movement and monitoring of people suspected of attempting to disrupt law and order.

Delhi Police has denied permission for the CJP demonstration, citing security concerns and procedural requirements. Prohibitory orders remain in force in the New Delhi area, and police have appealed to people to comply with the restrictions.

With PTI inputs