Left parties say police have turned Delhi into a ‘war zone’; MP Brittas was hospitalized after her arrest

John Brittas was admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital where CPI(M) general secretary MA Baby visited him. Photo credit: X/cpimspeak

Left parties have condemned the ongoing police action against protesters in Delhi on Sunday (11 October 2026), in which Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was injured when police detained him and forcibly dragged him into a detention van while he was speaking to the media.

Mr Brittas was admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital where CPI(M) General Secretary MA Baby visited him.

“The police have turned Delhi into a war zone,” Mr. Baby said, adding that dozens of activists from the party’s student wing, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), including its president Adarm M. Saji and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) leader Jaick C. Thomas, were attacked inside police vehicles. “They have turned police vans into torture camps. Women are brutally assaulted and held for hours in mobile prisons,” Mr Baby said.

The crackdown will not stop the protests, Mr. Baby argued, saying, “(Prime Minister Narendra) Modi, (Union Home Minister) Amit Shah and (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief) Mohan Bhagwat must not be under the impression that unleashing state repression will kill the movement to depose our youth to save democracy. he said.

Mr Brittas, who remains in treatment as of Sunday (October 11, 2026) evening, said in a post on X: “Even if we are dragged through the streets, beaten with batons, trampled by boots or choked to death, we will not back down an inch. We will move forward until democracy wins this protest and reclaims our nation!”

In a letter addressed to the President of India, the Chief Justice of India and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Mr Brittas said the timing of the “brutal police attack” on him was significant, given that it came within hours of the Supreme Court directing the administration on the protests. “The incident raises serious questions about personal liberty, the right to peaceful expression, police accountability, and respect for constitutional guarantees that this honorable court has reaffirmed and reaffirmed time and time again through its authoritative judgments,” he wrote. The demand for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is being made through democratic means, he said, adding, “Neither these demands nor criticism of public institutions can be seen as a license for the state to resort to intimidation.”

No lights on the bus. Men surrounding female activists!!! Govt stooped so low to save ‘Electoral Chorus’ Gyanesh Kumar!!! https://t.co/F67Q86c09T

— SFI (@SFI_CEC) October 11, 2026

Annie Raja arrested

Communist Party of India State Secretary Annie Raja was detained on her way to see student activists associated with the party. Several of the detainees required medical attention, she said, but she was not allowed to meet them.

CPI general secretary D. Raja said the police crackdown seen on Delhi’s roads in recent days was unprecedented. “All those detained must be released immediately and the government must withdraw all FIRs lodged against them,” he said.

The police have turned Delhi into a war zone, brutally attacking and assaulting students, male and female, and taking them away. SFÚ activists reported being tortured in police vehicles, some of which are mobile prisons with separate cells inside. STOP THIS VIOLENCE NOW!

— CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) October 11, 2026

Published – 11 Oct 2026 20:01 IST