'Anarchists have failed, planned to hold Delhi hostage': BJP slams Jantar Mantar stir

He alleged that the protesters had attempted to hold the country and the national capital hostage and were seeking to create violence.

NEW DELHI: BJP MP Sambit Patra on Saturday termed the Cockroach Janata Party's (CJP) proposed protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar a "flop show". The BJP MP claimed that the "anarchists" who wanted to hold Delhi "hostage" have failed.

"Jantar Mantar's story is not India's story. What is happening at Jantar Mantar, what you can see on TV and a few social media handles, is not India's story. India is calm and going ahead under good governance. We have been seeing that a few anarchist forces have been spreading anarchy in a corner of Delhi for the past few days. But today the anarchists have failed. The flop show of anarchist elements has completely collapsed. There was an attempt to hold India, the national capital, captive; that there be arson here, that there be violence here. But today, 'loktantra' has triumphed over bheedtantra," the BJP MP said.

He alleged that the protesters had attempted to hold the country and the national capital hostage and were seeking to create violence. "They were trying to hold India hostage, make the national capital hostage. They wanted violence," he said.

The remarks came amid a political row over the CJP's proposed demonstration against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The outfit had called the protest over allegations of voter-list manipulation during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and changes relating to Form 6, which is used for voter registration.

Earlier on Saturday, the CJP claimed that its leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained by Delhi Police from inside an aircraft after it landed in the national capital. The leaders had travelled from Mumbai to attend the planned demonstration.

In a video shared by the outfit, Dipke accused the police of preventing them from disembarking and described the alleged action as dictatorship. Police personnel reportedly told the leaders that they did not have permission to hold the protest at Jantar Mantar.

Police sources told news agency PTI that the three leaders were taken to different locations, with Dipke taken to Gurugram, Ranka to Dwarka in Delhi and Das to another location in the city.

The developments came as BJP president Nitin Nabin separately accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal and the CJP of attempting to create anarchy and destabilise the country. He alleged that their actions were driven by political ambitions and claimed that they were acting in collusion with foreign forces, charges that the opposition leaders have not been shown responding to in the statements provided.