New Delhi: A year into being India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi recalled the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi between 1975-77 and said on June 25, 2015: “Personally, the Emergency brings back many memories. As youngsters, we learnt a lot during the anti-Emergency movement.”On October 10, 2026, 12 years into being prime minister, Modi and his government showed how true his own words were, and how they would remain memorable for India’s youth when he unleashed the Delhi Police – controlled by Union home minister Amit Shah – to crack down on any and every sign of protest in the national capital demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The protest came in response to a nationwide call issued by the Cockroach Janta Party along with other student bodies and Left groups to march to Jantar Mantar demanding Kumar’s resignation and the complete rollback of the SIR. As Delhi turned into a fortress with over 25,000 security personnel locking down the capital, 45 metro stations shut, rail services to the city suspended, thousands detained including the CJP leaders, groups of marching protesters, bystanders, political leaders, four former chief ministers, several journalists and even Supreme Court lawyers. Amid the sweeping detentions across the national capital, in an expression of an undeclared emergency, while both Modi and Shah remained silent on why the state machinery was coming down so hard on peaceful protesters, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sought to defend Kumar. This, despite the fact that the Election Commission is a separate constitutional body and not an arm of the government. From BJP president Nitin Nabin, to MPs Sambit Patra, Ravi Shankar Prasad, and Bansuri Swaraj, to Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta and finally Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju, the saffron party’s leaders sought to portray the protests as a form of anarchy and accused the opposition of “openly” wreaking “havoc in the name of protest”. Making no mention of the sweeping detentions, the BJP leaders instead said that the “dignity of democracy has defeated the anarchy the opposition was trying to create.”The clampdown on the protest call on Saturday came just four months after the youth-led movement by the CJP and others forced the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Learning from the swelling numbers at Jantar Mantar in June-July despite the brute force used on protesters on July 20, the Modi government responded with pre-emptive detentions, locking down the capital to prevent even the beginning of a gathering.“Today, an attempt is being made to create a highly dangerous and serious situation in the country. Efforts are underway to destabilize the nation—where 1.4 billion people are living in peace and harmony, contributing collectively to India’s development. Who is doing this? Two anarchic groups: one led by Rahul Gandhi of the ‘INDI Alliance,’ and the other led by Arvind Kejriwal’s associates, CJP,” said Nabin.“I want to state clearly to both these groups that the people of India see right through your motives. Your ‘anarchist competition’, vying to see who can create more instability in the country, will not succeed.”Prasad went a step further, without making any mention of the police action in Delhi, the BJP MP and former Union law minister said that the“dignity of democracy” has “defeated the chronic anarchy” of the opposition.“PM Modi won in 2014, and they started the EVM narrative in 2015. At the time, I was the Union law minister, and there were extensive debates in parliament. We told them that EVMs were fine when they won, but faulty when PM Modi won. When Modi won in 2019 and 2024, they started talking about SIR.”However, it was Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta whose statement included some oblique acknowledgement of the heavy-handedness of the police action on protesters when she said that the “Delhi Police and all security forces, engaged in ensuring peace and order, were provoked, and deliberate attempts were made to create a confrontational situation.”“What happened on the streets of Delhi today is extremely unfortunate. People from Congress + AAP + Left + CJP openly wreaked havoc in the name of protest. The Delhi Police and all security forces, engaged in ensuring peace and order, were provoked, and deliberate attempts were made to create a confrontational situation,” said Gupta.“The professional agitators made every effort to spoil Delhi’s atmosphere of harmony, but due to the dedication of our police and security forces, everything remained under control. I extend my special thanks to the personnel of the Delhi Police. They did not lose their composure. With complete responsibility and sound judgment, they managed the situation and gave topmost priority to the safety of ordinary citizens,” she added.None of the BJP leaders however, made any mention of why the ruling party was coming out in defence of the Election Commission. It was only Union parliamentary affairs minister who not only praised the security personnel’s handling of the protest including the widespread detentions, but also justified the BJP’s defence of the Election Commission and Kumar by saying that the country cannot run on the demands of the opposition to remove institutional heads.“Last time the Cockroach party sought permission for one day and then sat there for a month and then sought to march to parliament illegally. Many anti-social elements and criminals took advantage of this. Maintaining order in Delhi is the police’s job. The police said that how the CJP broke rules last time, they should not be given another opportunity to do so. If you see the police’s explanation, the professional manner in which the protest was handled,” said Rijiju while speaking to television channel Aaj Tak.While the opposition has over the last week taken to the streets of the capital to hold street protests demanding Kumar’s resignation – including a march to the Election Commission that ended in an eight-hour sit in by leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday, an attempted march to Jantar Mantar, both of which ended in detentions – as well as a meet with President Droupadi Murmu, Rijiju denied that the government was on the back foot.“We don’t do anything wrong, so why should we go on the back foot. The opposition should be on the back foot. They can’t win elections by abusing the Election Commission. If you have to win elections you have to go to the people and win elections. Rahul Gandhi lives abroad for 7 months in a year. Modi ji has won the hearts of the people. The opposition party’s demand to remove a judge or an Election Commissioner, cannot go on. The country cannot run like this. Spreading misinformation they want to mislead the country. People will not appreciate this politics,” he added.