Protesters clash with police during Cockroach Janta Party’s march towards Parliament in New Delhi as security personnel use barricades to stop the demonstration (Image credit: PTI)
NEW DELHI: Cockroach Janta Party’s march towards Parliament Monday to demand the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan devolved into chaos as thousands of protesters ran into police barricades, lathis, and tear gas. While CJP alleged excesses by cops as protesters breached barricades and marched ahead, police said the agitators resorted to violence. By the end of the day, police said 118 of their personnel and 60 protesters were injured.Seventy people were detained, and cops said an FIR is being filed on charges of rioting, assault on public servants, and damage to public property.Many protesters had gathered at Jantar Mantar overnight. By 11am, crowds started to fill up adjoining roads as well. Traffic in central Delhi went haywire as the clashes spread beyond the protest site.Though CJP representatives met JP Nadda, CJP asked protesters to return to Jantar Mantar, where the stage was dismantled hours before. Meanwhile, BJP Monday blamed Left-affiliated student organisations, such as All India Students’ Association (AISA) and Students’ Federation of India (SFI), besides organised groups for protests and violence during Cockroach Janata Party’s march to Parliament. Similar allegations of organised instigation and crowd mobilisation were made in connection with the Delhi riots, and several individuals continue to face legal proceedings in those cases, BJP said. The violence did not appear spontaneous and there were organised groups that initiated it, after which sections of the crowd followed, it alleged.In a hard-hitting statement, BJP functionary Amit Malviya said that the “stone-pelting and orchestrated violence” carried out in the name of students raise serious questions about the intent of the protestors and those backing them.”Even more telling was the conspicuous absence of many of the prominent faces associated with the protest from the march itself, leaving those who had been mobilised at the behest of their political patrons to face the consequences,” he asked. The investigation will establish criminal responsibility, Malviya said.”The real conspirators are often those who plan, encourage and coordinate such violence while carefully keeping themselves out of harm’s way. They move on to the next agitation, leaving those they mobilised to bear the legal consequences.”CJP had been holding protest at Jantar Mantar since last month and has drawn support from opposition parties over its demand for the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan for paper leaks.With CJP seeking to mobilise youngsters over alleged irregularities in exams, Malviya rejected some of the allegations floating around. “Facts matter. Narratives built on fabricated documents do not,” he said.
