Psephologist-politician Yogendra Yadav and noted author Ramachandra Guha were among the dozens of people detained by police on Thursday morning as protests raged against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act across the country.
Guha was detained during a protest near the Town Hall in Bengaluru, while Yadav was detained near Red Fort in Delhi. Prohibitory orders had been clamped in both areas.
A video showed Guha arguing with policemen while he was holding a placard denouncing the Citizenship Act. Guha told NDTV “I have been detained for holding a poster of Gandhi and speaking about the Constitution to the press.”
Guha, who has written a biography of Mahatma Gandhi, has been a trenchant critic of the BJP and the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Guha had denounced the Karnataka government's move to impose prohibitory orders in Bengaluru on Wednesday ahead of protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Guha tweeted to the Bengaluru police commissioner that the move to impose prohibitory orders “has brought disgrace to this 'international destination' (referring to Bengaluru)” and was the use of a “colonial-era law to suppress us and our voices”.
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Yogendra Yadav, who is also president of the Swaraj India party, had called on citizens to march to Red Fort on Thursday. He had also called for "civil disobedience of unlawful orders".
Yadav said the December 19 was the day freedom fighters Ramprasad Bismil, Asfaqullah Khan and Roshan Singh "gave away their lives for India".
