The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has called for a nationwide ‘Lehra do Tiranga’ demonstration, with supporters asked to gather at Central Park in Connaught Place, Delhi, at 5 p.m. on Friday, following the arrest and remand of two party co-conveners in connection with an alleged breach at Jantar Mantar.
CJP founder Abhijit Dipke issued the call, urging citizens in Delhi to bring the national flag to the gathering. He also asked supporters who cannot travel to the capital to organise Tiranga marches in their respective cities. The announcement comes amid a dispute over access to Jantar Mantar, a prominent site for public demonstrations in central Delhi.
The two CJP leaders, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were arrested for allegedly trespassing into Jantar Mantar, violating bond conditions and obstructing police personnel on duty. They were subsequently sent to Tihar Jail and remanded to five days of judicial custody, according to the report.
The Delhi police said on October 12 that Jantar Mantar had been denotified as a protest site. The decision has become central to the dispute, with the CJP maintaining that its movement is focused on defending democratic rights and opposing what it describes as police action against peaceful dissent.
“We will tell them that waving the Tiranga is not a crime,” Mr. Dipke said in a post on X, while calling on supporters to attend the Connaught Place demonstration. The proposed gathering shifts the immediate focus from Jantar Mantar to Central Park, a public space in one of Delhi’s busiest commercial and civic districts.
Before being transferred to Tihar Jail, Mr. Ranka said the movement was fighting for constitutional accountability and the integrity of democratic processes. “Locking down protest sites and arresting peaceful demonstrators will only strengthen our resolve to stand up for the people’s rights,” he said.
The arrests have also drawn criticism from several Opposition leaders. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) MP Supriya Sule, Trinamool Congress leaders Mamata Banerjee and Mahua Moitra, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M.K. Stalin expressed solidarity with the CJP leaders through posts on X.
Mr. Gandhi said that waving the national flag during a peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar was not a crime and described the imprisonment of the young leaders as an act of cowardice. He also said students, youth, journalists and INDIA bloc parties were united by a demand for constitutional rights, despite operating under different political banners.
The proposed demonstration places public-space regulation and protest permissions at the centre of a fast-moving dispute in the capital. The immediate developments to watch are the police response to the planned Central Park gathering and the next legal proceedings involving the two CJP co-conveners.
