In a curious turn of events, the National Panthers Party has shifted its national office from Vithalbhai Patel House in central Delhi to Jantar Mantar, the capital’s designated zone for protests. The party’s chief patron Prof. Bhim Singh told The Sunday Guardian that it was their “office-in-exile” at Jantar Mantar. On 10 September this year, the party had to vacate its premises at VP House, where visitors of MPs are meant to stay. The party moved its office to Jantar Mantar the next day and has stayed put there since. It is, however, well-known in political circles that many aides and functionaries from different political parties occupy the rooms in the building for a long duration. In July this year, the Supreme Court had taken a dim view of the NPP having its offices at the said location for over 20 years, as a “guest”. However, Singh claimed that they had to vacate due to “orders from the very top.” The party has been protesting against the BJP-PDP government in Jammu and Kashmir. It had protested outside the PM’s house during the Kashmir floods. Currently, the party has no members in the state Assembly, although it had four members in the 2002 Assembly and three in the next one. Singh said that he had letters from MPs Ram Jethmalani and Ramdas Athavale, but they were not accepted by the authorities. “We had been allowed to stay there by then PM Chandrashekhar in 1991 for security reasons as I have been opposing terrorism in the valley. Our party stands for the national flag,” he said. He added that he had spoken to Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu and others in BJP like Uma Bharati and Rajnath Singh. “I have been assured that the matter will be resolved, but nothing has come to pass yet,” he said. Rajeev Khosla, Delhi unit president of NPP, said that other politicians who were not technically guests of MPs were also living there. “Rent was being paid on time. We are being singled out,” he claimed.
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