With the Central government facing criticism from former Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai over the police crackdown on Cockroach Janta Party protesters, the party has now pitched in to defend the action.

Responding to Annamalai’s remarks on detentions of the protesters approaching, and some of them breaching, Jantar Mantar last week, Tamil Nadu BJP spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy Wednesday said: “Mr Annamalai’s questions deliberately blur the line between peaceful protest and deliberate law-breaking.”

He pointed out that the CJP leaders were denied permission for protest at Jantar Mantar. “They responded by climbing locked gates and barricades, entering a de-notified site, and violating earlier peace bonds they had themselves executed. The SEM remand orders and subsequent judicial custody cited exactly this pattern—“no respect for law”, repeated unauthorised protests, and bond breaches, not some vague or indefinite detention. The High Court later reviewed and released them.…