Two Cockroach Janta Party leaders remanded in custody for 5 days — ABC News Australia
In New Delhi, India, two leaders of the Indian youth movement Cockroach Janta Party — Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das — were remanded in custody for five days after a protest near the historic Jantar Mantar monument. As ABC News Australia reports, they were detained on Tuesday along with other participants in the action — about 12 people in total.
Protest near Jantar Mantar
According to police, the participants climbed over barriers to enter the grounds of Jantar Mantar and chanted slogans demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Law enforcement officers said that the site is no longer an official venue for protests and accused Das and Ranka of unlawful entry.
The detentions followed large-scale police action over the weekend aimed at preventing gatherings of predominantly young protesters. At that time, law enforcement officers briefly detained thousands of demonstrators. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said on social media platform X that Jantar Mantar belongs to the people of India and that protesters would reclaim the space.
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Dispute over voter lists
The protests intensified amid a nationwide revision of voter lists, which has resulted in more than 130 million names being removed since last year. Critics consider the procedure politically motivated and say it could disenfranchise millions of voters. The Election Commission and the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi say the revision is necessary to remove duplicate and ineligible entries.
The Cockroach Janta Party movement emerged this summer as a satirical online campaign after India’s chief justice compared unemployed young people to parasites. Young Indians used the image of a cockroach as a symbol of resilience. The movement’s founder, Abhijit Dipke, criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a post on X after his release. According to the source, protests led by the group caused the resignation of an education minister in Modi’s government in July.
