Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann hit out at the BJP-led Centre on Saturday over the detention of several protesters ahead of CJP’s demonstration at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar and demanded the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event, Mann said, “Where is democracy? Around 80,000 to 90,000 security personnel have been deployed. The Centre has stopped short of deploying the Army to stop them. They (the protesters) are students, they are unarmed. They have come for the sake pf democracy so that their votes are not deleted.”He added SIR had been misused to delete votes and only retain the incumbent party’s “favourite votes”. “Two members of the Election Commission have also stated that they were not asked (about decisions related to the SIR of the electoral roll). It is an alarm bell for democracy. If students and the Gen Z are coming forward to save democracy, they should be allowed to protest. Why are they scared of Jantar Mantar. They themselves held demonstrations in the past,” Mann added.Drawing parallels with the 2020-2021 farm protests, Mann said farmers were made to sit on the Delhi border for 13 months, but the Centre had to later agree to their demands. “Later, Dharmendra Pradhan had to step down (following student-led protests over examination paper leaks). Now, chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation is being demanded. They should make him resign, why are people being troubled? They have turned entire Delhi into a cantonment,” he said.
