Almost like kidnapping, situation beyond Emergency: Mamata Banerjee on detention

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said the situation in Delhi has gone “beyond Emergency”, as she was detained along with party leaders who were protesting against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

The former West Bengal chief minister has decided to stay in the national capital and join the INDIA bloc’s planned protest against the SIR on Monday. Abhishek Banerjee, the party’s national general secretary who has returned to Kolkata, will also travel to Delhi for the protest, party sources said.

Banerjee, along with TMC joint secretaries Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen, Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam, Lok Sabha MP Pratima Mondal and former MP Saket Gokhale, staged a sit-in at the bus stop on South Avenue after allegedly being stopped from proceeding to Jantar Mantar, nearly 5 km away, to join the protest called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). They were later detained.

Banerjee described her detention as similar to being “kidnapped”, and said it was her first time being taken in a “prison van”.

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Speaking to a group of journalists after being taken to Dwarka North police station in Sector 17, Banerjee said the six leaders had first asked the police if they could be allowed to go to Jantar Mantar but were told they could not proceed.

“We were expressing solidarity in front of Derek’s house. Police said more than three can’t sit. We divided,” she said.

Banerjee said the group then sat on the road near a bus stop on South Avenue, in front of their vehicle. She was holding a poster reading “Save India, Save Democracy”.

“There was only one poster, Save India, Save Democracy. They didn’t listen. They just picked us in a prison van,” she said, adding that the group had removed the banner after police objected to it.

“It’s very unfortunate. We are not criminals; they picked us like criminals,” she said.

The TMC chief alleged that the leaders were driven around for nearly two hours without being told where they were being taken.

“We were moving around for two hours, didn’t know where we were going. Just like kidnapping. Now we are on the border of Haryana-Delhi,” she said.

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Banerjee questioned why the police had used a “prison van” to carry elected representatives.

She said she had cancelled her flight to Kolkata after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi requested her to stay in Delhi. She was scheduled to attend a programme in West Bengal on Saturday.

Speaking to PTI Videos at the protest site amid a crackdown against protesters who had converged here on a call by the CJP to press for the CEC’s resignation, Banerjee said, “I do not think they should be doing all this, because by taking such actions, they are only making the protesters more popular.”

“This has gone beyond an Emergency; it has become a Super Emergency.

“Maintaining peace and remaining calm is the most important thing, but what they are doing today is not right, neither for the country nor for its people,” she said.

In a video statement released later, Banerjee said the six leaders had complied with police instructions but were detained nevertheless.

“We were practically kidnapped and taken around in a vehicle for nearly two hours; we did not violate any law,” she said.

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She said the group would continue its dharna at the police station in protest against the treatment meted out to them and would “not even touch water” during the agitation.

The INDIA bloc is planning a protest march towards the Supreme Court on Monday against the SIR exercise, which opposition parties allege threatens the voting rights of eligible electors. The CJP’s protest on Saturday was called to demand Kumar’s resignation over alleged irregularities in the revision of electoral rolls.

Banerjee also said that former Delhi chief minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal was scheduled to meet her on Saturday.

“Arvind was supposed to come to my house, and he had assured us last night that he would come, but I have received information that even he was not allowed to leave, and that is the problem… Instead of allowing people to participate peacefully, they are being stopped,” she said.

Kejriwal, accompanied by AAP leaders and scores of party workers, was also detained outside his residence at Lodhi Estate while marching towards Jantar Mantar to participate in the protest.