Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday praised the central government and Delhi Police for showing restraint during the INDIA bloc's march to the Supreme Court to protest against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. He described the government's response as “mature” and “sensible”, contrasting it with the police action during protests over the weekend.
Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, along with AISA president Neha Bohra and thousands of supporters, marched from Constitution Club towards the Supreme Court on Monday, alleging irregularities in the electoral process and demanding action against the CEC.
Speaking to NDTV Managing Editor Shiv Aroor, Tharoor said the large turnout reflected the enthusiasm and commitment of supporters, many of whom had feared a police crackdown similar to the one witnessed on Saturday and Sunday.
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“From the point of view of the Congress, we were greeted by an extraordinary turnout of enthusiastic supporters... But what was equally striking was the enthusiasm, the commitment, even though ordinary people would have had every reason to fear that the police might behave exactly as they had done on Saturday and Sunday,” he said.
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Tharoor said the government, led by the BJP, had shown maturity by allowing the INDIA bloc's protest march to proceed without heavy-handed police intervention. “To the credit of the government and of the police, they did not behave in a heavy-handed manner. For the most part, despite barricades and, I thought, an unnecessarily large presence of policemen who had nothing really to do but to observe, the entire protest was allowed to be conducted without any interference from the police,” he said.
He added that the government's response was a “mature and sensible way” to handle the demonstration.
Tharoor also said the police deployment was justified to prevent any law-and-order breakdown, but welcomed the decision not to repeat the actions witnessed during the weekend protests.
On Saturday, more than 3,000 protesters, including Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke, were detained while attempting to gather at Delhi's Jantar Mantar to demand Kumar's resignation. They were later released. Several protesters regrouped after their release, and smaller demonstrations broke out at multiple locations across the national capital on Saturday and Sunday, despite extensive preventive measures by the police.
Tharoor said the government's handling of Monday's march may also have been influenced by the Supreme Court's observations during a hearing on Sunday.
“If the government saw fit to behave the way they did today, I'm sure that the Supreme Court's comments in their hearing on Sunday would have had something to do with it, too. You're not giving them enough credit,” he said.
According to Tharoor, the court had indicated that a major breakdown in law and order was the only justification it was prepared to consider for such intervention.
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Asked about comparisons between the INDIA bloc's demonstration and the CJP protests, Tharoor dismissed the suggestion that the two were competing for political space. “Look, let me say very bluntly to you that that is simply preposterous. As far as we're concerned, we are the only national opposition to the BJP,” he said.
He added that the Congress and the CJP were not competing for the same political space.
Tharoor also praised AISA president Neha Bora, who had emerged as a prominent face of the CJP protest and joined the INDIA bloc's demonstration on Monday. “In fact, Neha Bora, who was a star of the CJP protest, was with us today. She was on the same bus as the President of the Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Rahul Gandhi. I met her. She sweetly took a selfie with me. I mean, she's a terrific girl. And I'm very, very pleased that she was with us,” he said.
Tharoor said he viewed the protests as part of a broader effort to uphold democratic principles rather than a contest between political groups. He also applauded Bora for the courage and commitment she had displayed during the CJP demonstration.
The Congress had initially planned to submit a memorandum to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. However, the Chief Justice declined to meet the delegation and asked the party and its allies to file a petition outlining their requests.
Rahul Gandhi and 10 other INDIA bloc leaders subsequently submitted their petition after the march.
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