Commentator Tehseen Poonawalla claims he is under house arrest ahead of protest against E20 fuel

Political commentator Tehseen Poonawalla on Saturday alleged that police had put him under house arrest at his home in Delhi ahead of his planned protest against petrol being blended with 20% ethanol.

Poonawalla was scheduled to begin a vow of silence and a hunger strike at the Gandhi Smriti in the national capital to protest against the government’s Ethanol Blended Petrol programme.

The Union government’s programme currently mandates the sale of petrol blended with 20% ethanol. The policy is part of India’s broader energy transition strategy aimed at reducing dependency on fossil fuels, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and boosting income for sugarcane farmers.

However, consumers have complained that the new fuel mix damages engines and reduces their mileage.

Speaking with reporters on Saturday, the commentator claimed that the police informed him that he had been put under house arrest because “thousands of protesters” were to participate in the protest.

The police had not provided him any documents explaining the action, Poonawalla alleged.

“An entire battalion of Delhi Police cops including women officers have put me under house arrest!” Poonawalla alleged on social media, adding that Union minister Nitin Gadkari “is scared” of the protest against the ethanol policy.

On Thursday, Poonawalla claimed that the police had not allowed him to be at Vijay Chowk, which is near Parliament. He had claimed at the time that his Instagram account had been suspended. It was accessible on Saturday morning.

He had planned a “Gaadi March”, or car march, on Friday against the ethanol blending policy. However, he cancelled this march stating that he did not want anyone to get hurt “or their vehicles seized” after the police denied permission for the protest.

This came days after his brother Shehzad Poonawalla, a Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson, on Thursday removed the party’s name from his bio on social media platform X, leading to speculation that he may have quit the organisation.

E20 fuel row

An opinion poll by survey platform LocalCircles published on July 5 showed that 53% of respondents who owned petrol vehicles believed that the government’s handling of the E20 rollout was “disastrous” or “ineffective”.

Gadkari has been defending the government’s ethanol blending policy, claiming on July 9 that no car in the country was facing problems because of E20 petrol.

He has also been quoted as having maintained that the policy was framed collectively by government departments and not his decision alone. “The entire process is conducted after consultation with the petroleum ministry, the Cabinet and scientific research,” he had said.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Sara Varghese.