Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has slammed the measures taken by Indian authorities to prevent the Cockroach Janta Party’s protest from going ahead.
He called out a “war-like deployment” of security personnel and said that the suspension of the internet in a key part of Delhi was among the “most regressive” and “repressive” measures.
“A government confident in the fairness of its elections would welcome questions about them, whereas one that turns its capital into a fortress to avoid them only deepens the very suspicions it seeks to suppress. The government should provide answers, not lathis (sticks); expression, not repression,” Tharoor wrote on X.
He also called for the release of the protesters who had been detained.
Tharoor said India’s Gen Z “deserves better than an undeclared Emer-GenZ,” in a play on words.
Leaders of the CJP on Friday likened the clampdown on their planned protest to a “state of emergency.”
A state of emergency was declared in India by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the mid-70s. Emergency powers were invoked by the Congress leader for 21 months, during which civil liberties were suspended, much of the opposition was jailed and media was censored.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal also mounted an emergency-related attack against Modi’s government.
“This is worse than the Emergency. It’s official.. we are living under an absolute dictatorship ruled by Modi. Arresting cockroaches straight off their flight shows an unprecedented level of fear,” he said, referring to the arrests of CJP’s three main leaders.
Source: www.dw.com
