Annamalai Slams Centre Over CJP Crackdown; BJP's Vinod Selvam Hits Back

On Wednesday, two men who had spent seven days in custody in New Delhi were released: Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, leaders of the group known as CJP. Their detention followed protests at Jantar Mantar. By the end of the day it had also become the subject of a public argument between a former BJP state president and the party he left.

The former state president is K Annamalai, a onetime IPS officer who led the BJP in Tamil Nadu and resigned from the party in June this year. In a post on X, he attacked the Central government over the handling of the CJP protesters. He did not start with the present. He started with 2011, when Narendra Modi was Gujarat's Chief Minister and criticised a midnight police crackdown on anti-corruption protesters at Ramlila Maidan.

Annamalai recalled that Modi had said that if his hands were not tied, he would have gone to Delhi and waged a war against the Central government. In Annamalai's view, what the Prime Minister said then was absolutely right, and there was nothing wrong with it.

He then described what he sees as the present-day equivalent. A person, he wrote, could now be jailed indefinitely and have surety bonds rejected, while a Special Executive Magistrate, empowered to deal with preventive bond cases, plays circles around them. He was referring to the case of Das and Ranka. He added that anyone who questions violations of due process is called names and met with a barrage of attacks, including the label of Foreign Agent.

He was careful to separate the right to protest from the protesters' methods. He said he does not agree with many of the CJP's actions and thinks many of their tactics are misguided. But asked whether they have a right to oppose, argue and protest over an issue they consider important, he said he would answer categorically: yes. He asked that people raise the questions again, even if it makes some uncomfortable, and said he wished the Central government would answer them instead of resorting to whataboutism.

His sharpest passage was aimed at the "anti-national" label. He noted that the FCRA is controlled by the Home Ministry, that agencies do not report to opposition parties, and that Indian embassies abroad have enough people to track any Indian national working with foreign enemies. He called it tiring and boring to see every protest and statement against the Centre described as anti-national and externally funded. The government, he said, has been in power in Delhi for more than twelve years and still manufactures an enemy at all times to keep itself relevant.

Tamil Nadu BJP leader Vinod Selvam answered with a point-by-point rebuttal. He said the Modi government has a responsibility to maintain public order and cannot suspend it whenever those facing action happen to oppose the BJP. Peaceful protest deserves protection, he wrote, and alleged violations deserve examination, but neither political affiliation nor social-media popularity provides exemption from the law.

On the 2011 comparison, Selvam conceded that Modi's criticism of the Ramlila Maidan crackdown is on record. But a quotation from 2011, he said, cannot determine the legality of every police action in 2026. On the twelve-year point, he argued that time in office increases responsibility rather than removing the obligation to maintain order. The government, he said, answers both to citizens who protest and to those who need public spaces, transport and daily life to keep functioning.

The exchange leaves the central question where it began: what the detention of Das and Ranka says about due process. Neither side has moved, and the argument looks set to continue.