Shashi Tharoor Slams Delhi Crackdown Over CJP Protest, SIR Row Curbs

Shashi Tharoor questioned the Central Government over sweeping security curbs in Delhi linked to the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) row. The Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram also raised concerns over 250 cancelled trains and suspended metro services.

Tharoor said Delhi had been turned into a fortress, with checkpoints, concrete barriers and spike strips on roads and a deployment of 22,000 police and paramilitary personnel. He linked the clampdown to efforts to stop citizens from raising concerns about the integrity of elections.

Tharoor's Criticism

Tharoor spelt out his objection in a series of sharp remarks.

“I returned to the national capital after 2 am and have rarely seen anything like what Delhi is witnessing now, with checkpoints every few hundred metres, concrete barriers and spike strips laid across our roads, a war-like deployment of 22,000 police and paramilitary across the city, 250 trains cancelled and 45 metro stations closed, and reports of young people being detained from their own homes and the streets in and around Delhi — all to prevent citizens from peacefully raising questions about the integrity of our elections”, Tharoor said.

He then criticised the internet shutdown and restrictions around Jantar Mantar. “Most regressive (as well as repressive) is the suspension of the internet in the heart of the national capital. Freedom of movement stands completely shackled. Jantar Mantar was designated precisely so that citizens could voice dissent in the centre of Delhi, and today even the roads leading to it have been declared out of bounds”, he said.

Tharoor also questioned the use of force and the detention of protesters. “One is entitled to ask where this extraordinary manpower and urgency disappear when women in our capital need protection. Those detained will hvre to be released .And if the protesters simply return on Monday, will the authorities lock down the national capital all over again? Our GenZ deserves better than an undeclared Emer-GenZ.”, he said.

He widened the criticism to the government’s handling of questions around the election process. “A government confident in the fairness of its elections would welcome questions about them, whereas one that turns its capital into a fortress to avoid them only deepens the very suspicions it seeks to suppress. The government should provide answers, not lathis; expression, not repression. Barricades will do nothing to restore faith in the Election Commission, and the sooner it answers the public’s questions, the sooner calm will be restored. The strength of a democracy is measured by how it treats those who question its working, and by that measure, what we have seen today is utterly shameful and unconscionable”, he said.

Protest And Restrictions

The protest over the SIR row prompted the wider security response.

Tharoor depicted a heavily cordoned-off city, with checkpoints, concrete barriers and spike strips lining roads, alongside the closure of 45 metro stations and the cancellation of 250 trains.

He said Jantar Mantar, set aside for public dissent in central Delhi, had effectively been cut off because even the roads leading to it were out of bounds.

In his view, the clampdown raised a bigger question: whether the authorities were trying to block peaceful protest over election-related concerns.