A day before the planned protest at Jantar Mantar against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, All India Students' Association (AISA) president Neha Bora on Friday urged people to continue the agitation even if its organisers were arrested.
In a video message, Bora alleged that large-scale house arrests were underway and police were searching for protest organisers. She also said that trains bound for Delhi were being stopped, 57 metro stations had been shut and large numbers of security personnel, including paramilitary forces, were being deployed.
“This is nothing but a state of open emergency in the country,” she said.
Drawing parallels with the Quit India Movement of 1942, Bora said the arrest of leaders would not derail the planned agitation.
“History is repeating itself. Just like in 1942, the arrest of leaders could not stop the Quit India movement; this movement will also not stop,” she said.
She urged people travelling to Delhi to take charge of the protest if the organisers were detained and stage sit-ins wherever they were stopped, including at railway and metro stations.
“Wherever you are stopped, whether it is a metro or train station, sit down right there with your demands of ‘roll back SIR, Gyanesh Kumar must go’,” she said.
“There is no turning back. It is we the people versus the BJP,” Bora added.
The protest is scheduled for Saturday, with demonstrators demanding the withdrawal of the SIR exercise and the resignation of the CEC. Several Left student organisations, social activists and farmer organisations are also expected to participate.
(With inputs from PTI)