NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Thursday wrote to the Janata Dal-United (JD(U)) to express its displeasure over its complaint against Communist Janata Party (CJP) leaders for breaching the security cordon to enter Jantar Mantar, which has recently been denotified as a designated protest site.
The party's national secretary and Rajya Sabha MP P Sandosh Kumar wrote a letter to JD(U) president Nitish Kumar to convey his “shock” over the complaint.
The CJP leaders entered Jantar Mantar waving the national flag in protest against the denotification of the designated protest site on October 12.
Recalling Jantar Mantar’s historic role as a space where students, youth, farmers, women, trade unions and political parties have held governments accountable, Sandosh Kumar said the JD(U)’s action was deeply disturbing.
“While the Delhi Police, under Home Minister Amit Shah, has unleashed a brutal crackdown to suppress the growing movement against CEC Gyanesh Kumar, the report that it was your party, the JD(U), that filed the trespass complaint against CJP activists is shocking,” he wrote.
Referring to the historical significance of 7, Jantar Mantar Road, which housed the united Indian National Congress headquarters from 1947 to 1969 and has been home to the JD(U) for decades, the Left party leader said the complaint raised serious questions about the party’s democratic credentials.
He condemned the authoritarian crackdown on peaceful protesters, the brutal beating of students, the attack on a Rajya Sabha MP and the cancellation of trains to Delhi to curtail the movement.
These actions, he said, reflect a regime determined to silence dissent and undermine democratic institutions as the movement demanding accountability from CEC Gyanesh Kumar gathers momentum.
Appealing to Nitish’s roots in the student movement of the 1970s, Sandosh Kumar urged him to uphold the democratic convictions that shaped his political journey. “I urge you to direct the JD(U) to withdraw its complaint against the CJP leaders and stand firmly against the criminalisation of peaceful protest. I also urge you to reconsider your political alignment with the BJP, whose actions are systematically undermining our Constitution,” he wrote, stressing that the country needs political courage and principled solidarity with the forces fighting to defend democracy and constitutional freedoms.