‘Govt hell-bent on crushing democracy’: Prashant Bhushan calls for regime change

Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan on Thursday said a regime change in the country would be justified if the government continued to undermine electoral democracy, asserting that citizens had a democratic right to seek a change in government. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi alongside AISA president Neha Bora and CJP founder Abhijit Dipke, Bhushan rejected the government’s alleged characterisation of the agitation as an opposition-led attempt at regime change.

“This government keeps on saying this is the opposition's operation of regime change. We are only appealing to save the electoral democracy in this country. If such barbarism continues, there will definitely be a regime change. We all want a regime change. Is there anything wrong with that? Regime change is a democratic right of every citizen, and creating disaffection against the government is not an offence,” Bhushan said. He further accused the Modi government of undermining electoral democracy and citizens’ fundamental rights. “Such a government cannot continue, which is hell-bent on crushing the electoral democracy in the country and continues to play with the fundamental rights of citizens,” he said.

The remarks come amid protests by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and opposition parties against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. At the same press conference, AISA president Neha Bora expressed solidarity with journalists and criticised the authorities over alleged restrictions on media coverage and the treatment of a woman journalist.

“We saw how cameras were snatched from journalists, and they were told that they would not get the camera if they cover this,” Bora said.

Earlier, BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari had accused the march and the opposition’s campaign of seeking to legitimise anarchy rather than pursue democratic resistance. Referring to Bhushan’s earlier remarks, he said, “Indian democracy does not allow anarchy to be supported or endorsed. This is not an isolated incident. Prashant Bhushan, who held a joint press conference with Rahul Gandhi, said that he wanted a revolution and spoke about bloodshed. Exactly 24 hours later, Rahul Gandhi held a joint press conference with the same Prashant Bhushan. There is a pattern indicating that Rahul Gandhi’s objective is not democratic resistance but the appropriation and legitimisation of anarchy. This is not democratic resistance; it is a fight against the Indian state and Indian democracy,” he said.