Delhi Police has de-notified the Jantar Mantar as a protest venue. A new order was issued on Monday designating Ramlila Ground, Burari Ground and CBD Ground in Shahdara as alternate venues for such gatherings.
According to the order, the ministry of home affairs had constituted a committee to look into the matter of alternative venues to let people exercise their right to protest.
Based on the reports submitted by the committee, Jantar Mantar has been de-notified as a protest site. The order adds that detailed standard operating procedures (SOPs) for demonstrations at the three sites will be issued separately.
Founder of CJP voices his displeasure over Jantar Mantar issue
Recently Jantar Mantar has been the center of all controversies surrounding the cockroach janta party (CJP) led by Abhijeet Dipke. The founder of CJP has been organizing protests at Jantar Mantar on several issues, including examination malpractice and election.
In the wake of Dipke’s criticism of the Election Commission’s special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, people have been staging protests at Jantar Mantar.
Speaking about the latest turn of events, Dipke expressed his displeasure over the order and promised to continue his protests elsewhere apart from the Jantar Mantar.
“They have removed Jantar Mantar as a protest site. Yes it is no more a protest site as anyway it has become a war zone for the coward dictator. Ab poora desh Jantar Mantar banega!” he tweeted about the entire country becoming Jantar Mantar.
De-notification of Jantar Mantar comes after election commission protests
Jantar Mantar was in the news again recently after people turned up to protest against the chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and election commission of India’s special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The row erupted after the investigative report on the SIR, which questioned the very basis of the exercise, sparking off fresh allegations of “vote chori” (vote theft), which Election Commission of India has been denying.
The de-notification of Jantar Mantar comes after days of detentions of several leaders and protesters across Delhi. The police have defended the detentions as a step to ensure law and order as the protests turned violent, especially after the weekend when multiple leaders and activists were arrested.
The investigative report also revealed that the Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections to some of the SIR related orders and directions at least 14 times during the last 10 months.
The new SOPs will now decide the future of the protests as per the guidelines to be issued for the three newly approved venues by Delhi Police.