Gyanesh Kumar gaddi chhoro: Dhruv Rathee, Prakash Raj join mega CJP protest

Actor-activist Prakash Raj and popular YouTuber Dhruv Rathee joined the CJP in Bengaluru as the outfit held a 'people's tribunal' over alleged SIR irregularities.

In Short

• CJP holds protest at Bengaluru's Freedom Park against CEC
• Actor Prakash Raj and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee join 'people's tribunal'
• Demand is to scrap SIR, not just remove Gyanesh Kumar, says actor

'SIR radd karo' (scrap SIR), 'Gyanesh Kumar gaddi choro' slogans rent the air at Bengaluru's Freedom Park as the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) kicked off its mega protest against the Chief Election Commissioner on Thursday. Actor-activist Prakash Raj and popular YouTuber Dhruv Rathee joined the CJP's Abhijeet Dipke as the outfit held a "people's tribunal" over alleged irregularities in the revision of voter lists. It will be followed by a 'chappal protest'.

The crowd had begun to swell from Thursday morning as several activists and civil society organisations thronged Bengaluru's Freedom Park. At around 1 pm, CJP leaders Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka arrived at the venue and jointly raised hands with Rathee and Prakash Raj on stage as the crowd raised anti-Modi and "vote chor, vote chor" slogans.

PRAKASH RAJ'S SCRAP SIR CALL

Addressing the gathering, the Singham actor asserted that the Election Commission (ECI) had "insulted the entire country" through the SIR exercise.

"In this country, people used to decide who forms the government, but with SIR, the government is deciding who will vote," Raj said.

Demanding scrapping of the SIR exercise, which has resulted in exclusion of over 13 crore people across 20 states and UTs, Raj underlined that the agitation was to restore the rights of the citizens.

"The aim of this protest is not to remove CEC Gyanesh Kumar alone. If he goes, another will replace him. The aim is to scrap the SIR," Raj said.

He also alleged that Kumar was acting at the behest of PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

A day before the event, Raj twisted a dialogue from his film Singham to warn the CEC. "Aali re aali, Gyanu, aata tujhi baari aali (Gyanesh Kumar, now it's your turn)," Raj is heard saying in a video released by Dipke.

The protest comes as the CJP and the Opposition continue to press for the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar over the SIR exercise.

The calls have only grown louder after an Indian Express expose revealed that concerns over the deletion and restoration of names were also being raised within the Election Commission itself.

The report claimed Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected at least 14 times over the past 10 months on various SIR-related decisions by the poll panel.

'THOSE WHO ARE ALIVE ARE DECLARED DEAD'

Among those who attended the CJP event at Freedom Park were several people whose names were deleted from the draft rolls during the SIR. The CJP claimed they were marked as "shifted" and "absent" even though they have been residing at the same place.

In fact, the purpose of holding the 'people's tribunal' was to hear out the experiences of the people removed from voter lists.

"People who are alive are declared dead. This is the death of democracy," Abhijeet Dipke, CJP founder, said.

"They call us (youth) cockroaches because they want us to live like a cockroach. But we need to be resilient like a cockroach," he further said.

NOT HERE FOR REGIME CHANGE: DHRUV RATHEE

Meanwhile, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, who called the agitation "a fight to protect democracy", released a report that focuses on SIR irregularities across 100 polling stations in Karnataka, according to a report in The Hindu.

Rathee, on his part, said there was "zero transparency" and "zero accountability" from the ECI over the SIR exercise. "I have not come here for regime change," Rathee, who lives in Germany, said.

Following the 'tribunal', the CJP will hold a "chappal protest" in solidarity with women journalists who alleged sexual harassment by a Delhi Police personnel during a protest at Jantar Mantar.

This is the second such protest against Gyanesh Kumar that the CJP has held over the past week. Last week, thousands turned up at the CJP's agitation at Mumbai's iconic Shivaji Park.

Among those in attendance were veteran actors Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah and singer and composer Vishal Dadlani.

The outfit, which started as a satirical online movement, has also announced plans to return to Jantar Mantar for its third leg of protest against the CEC.

Being dubbed Jantar Mantar 2.0, the site was the epicentre of the massive student protests against exam paper leaks in July. It eventually resulted in the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as Union Education Minister.

- Ends