“For the past two weeks, Sonam Wangchuk, Abhijeet Dipke and thousands of young protesters have been agitating peacefully at Jantar Mantar…When the students marched towards Parliament, one expected at least a minister to come forward for talks. That did not happen,” he said.

Referring to the 2020-21 farmers’ protests, Aaditya Thackeray said the BJP government had earlier branded the protesting farmers as “urban naxals”, “maoists” and “terrorists”.

“Yesterday’s action against students reflected the same authoritarian mindset,” he alleged.

‘Cops had to disperse crowd’: Fadnavis

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has, meanwhile, defended the police action against the CJP protestors and students in Delhi, saying they had to “disperse the crowd to avoid any mishap.” “The police had displayed a lot of restraint. But some people vandalised police vans and pelted stones on cops,” he said, adding, “No government likes to lathi charge its own citizens.”

He further alleged that the CJP campaign is being exploited by some outfits to “push their personal agenda and create anarchy” in the country.

“When any agitation is faceless, leaderless there is this danger of protest getting directionless. As every outfit promotes its own agenda. In absence of ideological commitment and definite direction, agitation scatters in many directions,” Fadnavis said.

“Unfortunately, CJP agitation at Jantar Mantar saw things going in different directions. Some elements made inroads in this agitation with other intentions. There was concern as [the] attempt was to create violence and disruptions,” he lamented.

Tensions have flared up since the police clampdown on the CJP movement on Monday. Today, the Opposition leaders, including LoP Rahul Gandhi and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi, held a protest outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg.