00:00The big question that we asked this evening, what explains the unprecedented clapdown in the national capital, right to protest
00:07curbed, pressure piling on CEC, Gyanesh Kumar, both pressure groups like CJP as well as the India Alliance, the opposition
00:16government, wary of CJP protest against CEC, looking at the kind of unprecedented measures that have taken place and the
00:25Congress, CJP caught in a possible game of one-upmanship.
00:29Rahul Gandhi is going to be in Chennai for Chhatro Ki Grooms tomorrow.
00:32Cutting across to our panelists this evening, we have short time, so very quick responses.
00:36Keeping in mind, we have news break.
00:39I have Rajat Sethi, political analyst, Tuhin Sinha, BJP national spokesperson, Yashavarda Nazar, former IPS officer, Salman Sars, Congress national
00:47spokesperson, Meher Paswicha, CJP national spokesperson.
00:51I'd like to begin with the BJP national spokesperson.
00:54Mr. Tuhin Sinha, never seen measures in the national capital, despite the Supreme Court stepping in and saying, don't shut
01:03down, regulate.
01:04What you've practically done is bring the national capital of this country to a complete shutdown, where even express trains
01:12coming in from other parts of the country are not allowed in the capital from 4 a.m. this morning
01:18to 2 p.m.
01:18Leave alone the other measures.
01:23Well, good evening, Preeti.
01:25Good evening, everybody.
01:26You know, the safety and well-being of every citizen of Delhi and of the country is of the government.
01:30It's not of the courts.
01:32It's not of journalists.
01:33So, keeping that in mind, I'm sure there were some intelligence inputs, which were the trigger for the shutdown that
01:40you are witnessing right now.
01:42Unfortunately, what we are witnessing right now is loony, obsessive, competitive protesting between the Congress party and the cockroaches on
01:52the other hand.
01:53Now, three quick points.
01:55You know, if the matter is subjudice, the least which these people could have done was waited for the next
02:01hearing, where the Election Commission had to answer to the Supreme Court with regard to specific questions, with regard to
02:10specific queries that the Supreme Court had put forth to the ECI.
02:14Number two, you know, there seems to be some confusion.
02:17Certain Congress leaders have been saying that, you know, vote chowdhury started with SIR in May 2025.
02:24But apparently, Kharge believes that it has been happening all along, which is perhaps why he's calling the Prime Minister
02:29illegal.
02:30Now, if Kharge is right, and, you know, assuming that it's happening all along, I think the leader of opposition
02:37is also illegal.
02:38All 99 Congress MPs should resign forthwith, and if it is happening from May 2025, then the Kerala state government
02:45of Congress party should resign forthwith.
02:49And point number three, we have all seen, you know, what the kind of flash protesting which these people have
02:54done, the kind of, you know, the acts with the kind of indecent acts which Rahul Gandhi was seen doing
02:59in front to a woman cop.
03:02I think if that is the agenda, if that is what the leader of opposition has reduced itself to, but
03:06my larger worry, just the last point, my larger worry is that it doesn't stop with the chief election commissioner.
03:13The agenda is malefied.
03:15Rahul Gandhi has been fantasizing a Nepal, a Bangladesh kind of protest, you know, a regime change for the last
03:22couple of years.
03:23And that is why every day these people are changing goalposts. Mind you, it's not about the chief election commissioner,
03:30they will go at the chief judges of India, they will go at the prime minister, and that is why
03:35the country needs to take a stand today.
03:37They are already going at the prime minister.
03:40Okay, Mr. Zina, they are already, where the Congress is concerned, the Congress is already going after the prime, they
03:47are already going after the prime minister, and the Congress has also said that they are willing to forego every
03:51election that they have won in the last few years since they have raised the issue of what they believe.
03:56These are allegations of what they believe is a compromise election commission.
04:00I would like to go to Mr. Salman's source, but right before that I am bringing in Mr. Yashavarda Nazad.
04:05Yashavarda Nazad, for somebody, you know, who has been a former cop, I just want you to give us an
04:11understanding.
04:12The kind of measures that are in place in the national capital seem unprecedented to many, but if you go
04:19back to what happened on the 22nd of July,
04:20does anything justify of even blocking trains to the national capital from 4 a.m. to 2 p.m., Home
04:29Secretary writing to the other states suggesting it's an illegal protest,
04:34do not allow, you know, which in effect means do not allow protesters to come to the national capital?
04:40First, I'm extremely surprised that it is the Home Secretary who's taking the lead in this particular case,
04:47when the entire powers to promulgate the prohibitory orders are with the police commissioner.
04:54And let me remind you, Priti, that in London, about two, three years back, there was a protest by the
05:02Palestinians,
05:04which was allowed by the police commissioner, despite the opposition of the Home Secretary, who's a Home Minister, not as
05:12Babu, as here.
05:14And it was allowed because he said it has not reached that threshold of danger to public life and public
05:24order.
05:24And therefore, I'm surprised because protest is a right.
05:29It's not a question of what the opposition is doing or the non-opposition is doing.
05:33And therefore, the police commissioner, always there has to be a dialogue, there has to be a methodology.
05:40He has to talk to the opposition parties, how many people you're getting,
05:44and maybe widen the parameter where this can take place peacefully.
05:48It has to be done with negotiation.
05:51All right. You know, sir, I'm terribly short on time because we had a press conference right in the beginning
05:55and we have an interview lined up next with Rajdeep.
05:58I just want to quickly bring in our other guests and Salman Saus to pull you in on this.
06:02There seems to be, and correct me if I'm wrong, a one-upmanship between you, which is the Congress Party,
06:08not you,
06:08and the Kokoro Janata Party, which is holding a protest tomorrow.
06:13Priti, first, you know, I'm from Kashmir.
06:15I'll say just one word to my fellow Kashmiris.
06:19BJP has been a Kashmir in Hindustan, and it's been a Kashmir in Hindustan Kashmir.
06:23What that means is that BJP wanted Kashmir to become India, but they're making India into Kashmir, basically.
06:30They're making Kashmir out of India.
06:32This is the kind of high-handed kind of practices that they've deployed in Kashmir,
06:38and now they're doing the same thing to the rest of the country.
06:42And I think it's really, really, to my mind, I think this is detrimental to our democracy.
06:48I don't think there's any, so far, all the protests that we've seen,
06:52they're peaceful protests, whether they were from the Congress Party,
06:55which has been in the forefront for all these, for several years now.
06:58We've been talking about vote jury.
07:00And now all the young people of this country, whether it's Kokoro Janata Party or other young people,
07:06whoever wants to protest should protest peacefully.
07:08But there's no justification for taking young people out of trains, shutting down trains, shutting down metro stations.
07:16What is going on with this government?
07:19Why, you know, even the British, you know, this is Mahatma Gandhi's India.
07:24The Congress Party is Mahatma Gandhi's party.
07:28These young people are inspired by Mahatma Gandhi.
07:31We are non-violent.
07:33We're protesting peacefully.
07:35We're fighting for the rights of 13.4 crore people who've been left of the electoral rolls.
07:41We're asking for transparency.
07:43Can we not even ask for transparency?
07:46And by the way, just one message to the Chief Election Commissioner from me.
07:49As his fellow citizen, Mr. Chief Election Commissioner,
07:53you're supposed to be an impartial referee.
07:55But the entire opposition has lost trust in you.
07:58How can you continue?
07:59Your position is untenable.
08:01You should resign.
08:02Mr. Sauts, I need to.
08:04Okay.
08:05All right.
08:06I need to bring in our other two guests.
08:07Once again, I severely, I apologize.
08:09We just had a press conference last minute.
08:11I want to bring in Rajat Sethi into this conversation.
08:15Rajat Sethi, if the kind of information that is coming in,
08:18unprecedented clampdown, never heard.
08:21At least I don't remember the last time something like this happened,
08:24where the national capital is concerned.
08:25This messaging goes out to the very people, especially the Gen Z.
08:29What's the message there?
08:31See, Preeti ji, I agree.
08:33It's unprecedented the scale with which, I mean,
08:36Delhi police has been at the receiving end for the past week or so.
08:40There have been attacks at them.
08:41There have been mocking, people mocking and abusing them.
08:44So, also in this case for tomorrow, I believe there was no application
08:49wherein, you know, a given timeline has to be there before you apply for a protest.
08:55That, those rules and regulations have been put in place
08:58so that some corrective actions, some bandobas can be done.
09:01One time they've got a, you know, an outlier event happened when,
09:05you know, a permission was given to them at the airport itself.
09:09But that should not be converted into a norm.
09:11That way, I mean, anybody can start saying that,
09:14oh, I have a pressure group of a thousand people.
09:16I will go and do Chakka Jam in Delhi.
09:18There are rules which are laid out.
09:20I'm not sure.
09:21Maybe the Cockroach Janta Party and the spokespersons over there
09:24would have applied for this.
09:25I'm not sure of it.
09:26But what I've heard from newspapers is they only applied today.
09:29From that perspective and also keep in mind,
09:32Delhi police has its own intelligence arm.
09:34I don't know what intelligence they have gathered.
09:36Public life is at stake here.
09:38Are they having more information that none of us sitting here in the newsroom have that?
09:43Maybe because of certain precautionary measures they've gone to this extent.
09:47There are still a lot of information arbitrage which we have to account for
09:50in order to come to a conclusion whether this was overboard or not.
09:57All right.
09:57You know, I just want to at least tell our viewers,
10:01we are at the Mumbai-India Today conclave and we did have the members of the Cockroach Janta Party
10:07and at least the Cockroach Janta Party claims, which was sort of thus,
10:10he claims that he did go to the Delhi police well in time to get that order
10:15or, you know, at least he went and submitted an application where they wanted to protest
10:20but they never quite heard back from the Delhi police.
10:22I want to bring in Ms. Pasricha, who is, I believe, a Cockroach Janta Party spokesperson.
10:27Ms. Pasricha, would you, did you not apply in time for permission?
10:32Have there been, you know, gaps there?
10:36So we went, we supplied information to the Delhi police yesterday.
10:41We were there at their office and we let them know that, actually it was two days ago,
10:46if I'm not wrong, that this was going to happen.
10:49And the idea being that we as citizens are granted the right to protest under Article 19
10:56and it is to let them know that this protest shall be happening.
11:00It would be great if they will designate the designated protest site,
11:04which is Jantar Mantar, for us to do this.
11:06And that is to let them know.
11:08I think in the conversation that is happening about the measures being taken,
11:12being unprecedented, I think it's massive, the kind of stuff that's happening,
11:17for something that is a peaceful protest.
11:19It's just about some 20, 30-year-olds who have called for a protest
11:23against the Steve Election Commissioner.
11:27And, you know, the security threat keeps coming up.
11:31So who is, what is the security threat?
11:34We're trying to ask because there will be no violence from our end.
11:37It's a peaceful protest that is the ask.
11:41Okay.
11:41And I just want to say that the Delhi police,
11:4750,000 personnel who have been deployed,
11:49they seem to have a lot of intelligence about where it is going on.
11:53They know where we live.
11:54We've been detained all over the country.
11:58Okay.
11:59If this is the case,
12:00then they should catch the people
12:01who they say are going to cause chaos.
12:08All right.
12:09Okay.
12:09So what we do know is that it's in the morning sometime
12:11that the Cockroach Janta core team,
12:14that is Abhijit, Ditke, Sauravdas and Ashutosh Ranka
12:16will be making their way to the national capital.
12:18Will they be detained before they take their flight?
12:20Because now the Home Secretary has written to each state as well,
12:24even though law and order is a state subject.
12:26Okay.
