More than 2,000 protest participants detained in Delhi — Channel NewsAsia
In India’s capital, Delhi, police detained more than 2,000 protest participants and the founder of the youth movement Cockroach. The demonstrators demanded the resignation of India’s Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Channel NewsAsia reports.
To prevent the demonstration, authorities deployed thousands of police officers and paramilitary personnel across the city, restricted mobile internet in the central business district, and closed dozens of metro stations and markets.
Protest stopped before it began
The Cockroach movement planned to gather thousands of people in the Jantar Mantar area in central Delhi, but security forces sealed off the area before the event began. According to an unnamed Interior Ministry official, more than 2,000 people were detained in Delhi. Local media also reported around 400 detentions in Mumbai. At the time of publication, police had not commented on the detentions.
Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijit Dipke and senior movement leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained after their flight from Mumbai to Delhi landed, the organization said. According to television channels, Dipke told law enforcement officers aboard the plane that he had arrived to be detained and was not afraid of them. Movement representative Ajinkya Shinde said protesters would continue their actions until Kumar resigns.
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Dispute over voter rolls
Protest participants and opposition parties accuse electoral authorities of conducting a revision of voter rolls that could have disproportionately benefited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The protests intensified after the Indian Express reported that two Election Commission members had questioned the revision, which removed about 130 million entries from the rolls.
According to the Election Commission, 63 million of the removed entries concerned people who had changed their place of residence, 30 million concerned people who could not be found, and 28 million concerned deceased people. The commission said these were entries identified during the revision of draft rolls and that voters who were wrongly excluded could restore their registration. The Election Commission and the Bharatiya Janata Party rejected allegations of wrongdoing.
The UN human rights office expressed concern over the mass detentions and called on Indian authorities to ensure respect for the right to peaceful assembly. India’s mission to the UN in Geneva called the position inappropriate interference in the country’s internal affairs.
