Elected representatives were reportedly picked up by Delhi Police and driven around for an hour — not arrested, not charged, just circled through the capital's streets to keep them away from a protest. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called it out bluntly on X on Saturday, October 10, 2026, and his post is already igniting a fresh round of Centre-versus-opposition fury. Vijayan did not mince words: 'Imagine being so scared of the opposition that you make the Delhi Police detain elected reps and drive them around in circles for an hour just to keep them quiet.' He called the move 'a blatant attack on our democratic rights' and directly named Prime Minister Modi's administration as the source of what he described as panic-driven, high-handed tactics.

What allegedly happened at Jantar Mantar

The incident appears to be linked to a protest gathering at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi's designated demonstration ground and a perennial flashpoint for opposition mobilisation. According to Vijayan's account, Delhi Police — which reports to the Union Home Ministry — detained elected representatives before they could reach the venue and kept them in vehicles without pressing formal charges, a tactic critics call 'preventive carousel' detention. No independent confirmation of the specific names or parties of the detained MPs was available at the time of publication.

The constitutional flashpoint: preventive detention of legislators

Detaining sitting legislators, even briefly, sits in legally and constitutionally murky territory. Members of Parliament enjoy certain privileges under Article 105 of the Constitution, and courts have repeatedly frowned on executive action that effectively nullifies a representative's ability to participate in public political activity. Whether the reported detention crossed that line is a question opposition legal teams are likely already examining. For Vijayan — a Communist Party of India (Marxist) Politburo member who has built his political identity on resistance to what the Left frames as BJP overreach — the episode fits neatly into a long-running narrative: that the Central government uses Delhi's police apparatus as a political instrument against dissent.

A pattern opposition parties keep citing

This is not the first time Jantar Mantar has become a stage for this argument. Opposition parties have repeatedly alleged that permissions for protests at the site are arbitrarily denied or that police deployments are calibrated to deter rather than facilitate lawful assembly. Each such episode adds a fresh data point to the opposition's 'democratic backsliding' case — a case that travelled into the international discourse through the 2024 and 2025 election cycles and shows no sign of quieting. Vijayan's closing line — 'we will not be intimidated' — signals that whatever legal or political response comes next, the Left and its allies intend to stay visible at Jantar Mantar and beyond. The street is far from done with this fight.