NEW DELHI: Police detained India’s ‘cockroach’ movement founder Abhijeet Dipke, student leaders and supporters on Friday as hundreds poured into central Delhi, waving the national flag and demanding the resignation of India’s election chief.
The youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), opposition groups and student organisations have held near-daily protests this month demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over a revision of voter lists they say favours Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
More than 130 million voters were deleted during the revision.The Election Commission has denied favouring any party and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol. The BJP has accused rivals of trying to undermine democracy by wrongly questioning legitimate electoral processes.
Dipke called Friday’s protest in support of two CJP leaders detained and sent to jail this week for five days for demonstrating at a protest site in violation of a ban.
The group and left-wing student organisations had urged supporters to gather at the Central Park in New Delhi’s busy Connaught Place shopping and food district on Friday evening to wave and hoist the national flag.
Dipke was detained as he stepped out of a house in central Delhi, with police hauling him into a police car and driving away after a brief argument.
Student activist Neha Bora, a prominent face of the protests, was also detained as she tried to reach Connaught Place with dozens of supporters.
Senior police officer Sachin Sharma told Reuters that Dipke and Bora had been taken into preventive detention.
“Abhijeet is detained by Delhi Police,” CJP posted on X. “This government is so scared of the youth waving national flag.”
Earlier on Friday, police had met Dipke and warned him against going ahead with the protest. Security was stepped up, with hundreds of police in riot gear fanning out across central Delhi. The park was shut by civic authorities.
Nevertheless, nearly 500 protesters managed to reach Connaught Place in groups and protested in about half a dozen places around the Central Park, waving flags and shouting slogans. A few were detained and taken away in a police vehicle.
“If waving the tricolour in the country has become a crime then I am happy to go to jail,” said Saurav Kumar, a data analyst, before he was detained. “The government not giving us the space to protest, not accepting faults in the system is not a healthy sign for a democracy.”
Small protests were also held in financial capital Mumbai and tech hub Bengaluru, while student organisations held a demonstration in the eastern city of Patna, with people waving flags of their organisations and pushing against police barricades.
YOUTH USED AS PAWNS, BJP SAYS
The cockroach movement has emerged as one of the biggest political challenges faced by Modi and his BJP in his 12 years in power.
A weeks-long sit-in by its supporters earlier this year forced Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over exam paper leaks.
The latest demonstrations erupted after the Indian Express newspaper reported that Kumar’s two deputies had raised concerns internally about voter list changes, registration procedures and digital systems.
The 130 million names that were removed from voter lists starting last year — equivalent to more than the population of Japan — included 28 million people who had died, 63 million who relocated, and 30 million who could not be traced, according to the Election Commission.
Opposition parties allege the deletions disproportionately affect Muslims and other minorities who are unlikely to support the Hindu nationalist ruling party, allegations the commission and the BJP reject.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the demonstrations were the main opposition Congress party’s attempt to “seize power”.
“Instead of channelling the energy of the youth toward nation-building, they are being used as pawns in the politics of anarchy,” he said at a media briefing on Friday.