NEW DELHI: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka on Friday issued a message to police personnel across the country ahead of the outfit’s planned protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Saturday, urging them not to use force against students and asking whether they wanted to be remembered in history as General Dyer or Mangal Pandey.In a post on X, Ranka alleged that police personnel were acting on orders from their superiors and questioned their role in the alleged nighttime detentions of students.“We know that whatever is being made you do at this time is happening on orders from above. But how can you raise your hands against our children like this? How can you take them away in the darkness of the night like common thugs?” he wrote in a message translated from Hindi.Ranka urged police personnel to reflect on whether their actions were consistent with their conscience and morality. Drawing a parallel with the British rule, he said some policemen had fired on their own countrymen while claiming they were merely following orders, adding that the nation continued to regard them as traitors.“The blood of July 20 is on the hands of the Delhi Police. Is that what you want too?” he said, referring to the July 20 violence.‘General Dyer, or like the martyr Mangal Pandey’Ranka asserted that the protesters would reach Jantar Mantar on Saturday under all circumstances and continue their campaign, describing it as a historic battle to save the country.He ended his message by asking police personnel to consider how they wanted to be remembered in history, drawing a contrast between General Reginald Dyer, associated with the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, and Mangal Pandey, remembered for his role in the 1857 uprising against British rule.
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“The decision is yours—how do you want to be remembered in history: like General Dyer, or like the martyr Mangal Pandey?” Ranka said.Earlier, CJP official account shared a video claiming a group of students from Pune who were on its way to Delhi to join the 10 October protest, were detained.“A group of students from Pune was on its way to Delhi to join the 10 October protest. They have been detained midway and are now being taken away in a bus to an unknown location,” the post reads.
