Mamata Banerjee detained in Delhi

Former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was detained on Saturday while staging a sit-in outside a residence in New Delhi, the capital of India. Several Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmakers were also detained, including Dola Sen, Derek O’Brien, Pratima Bannerjee and Samirul Islam.
Speaking out against the Delhi Police action, Mamata said on Saturday, “The police are not even allowing us to stage a peaceful sit-in. Holding a sit-in and expressing dissent are our constitutional rights. The police are interfering with those rights as well. I have been detained unlawfully. I do not know where they are taking me.”
Mamata questioned why people should face obstruction even when attempting to protest peacefully.
She said the Constitution guarantees the right to protest in a democratic system and that police interference in the exercise of this right naturally raises questions. The Trinamool leader also alleged that she had not been informed where she was being taken.
Earlier, police detained Abhijit Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), after he arrived at Delhi airport, boarding his flight to take him into custody. Popular Indian YouTuber Dhruv Rathee had also reportedly been detained earlier from his residence in Gurugram.
A protest was scheduled to take place at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Saturday. Dipke had been traveling from Mumbai to Delhi to join the demonstration.
Among those detained at the protest were Sujal Bhattacharya, Meenakshi Mukherjee and Aishe Ghosh of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), as well as former Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.
The Cockroach Janata Party called the protest to demand action against India's Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, over allegations of vote theft and fraud in the revision of electoral rolls.
Security has already been tightened across the capital ahead of Saturday's demonstrations. Tensions have emerged at several locations as opposition parties protest over demands for the chief election commissioner's resignation, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the protection of voting rights.
The Cockroach Janata Party also took to social media on Saturday to allege that the country was under an “undeclared state of emergency.”
The detention of Mamata Banerjee and several other Trinamool Congress lawmakers during the sit-in is likely to intensify protests by opposition parties. Delhi is once again at the center of a political confrontation over the right to protest and the limits of administrative restrictions.