The Cockroach Janta Party and Left groups’ call for protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Saturday made the news in international English media with an emphasis on the detention of the political campaign’s leaders and youth protesters.
Several media organisations reported on the “lockdown” in the national capital with heavy barricading and thousands of security personnel deployed ahead of the protests. They detailed how the Delhi Police “chased”, “dragged” and “bundled” the protesters in police vehicles.
The New York Times reported that the capital of the world’s largest democracy was turned into a “fortress” as thousands of protesters in their 20s and 30s gathered throughout the day to protest against the special intensive revision of electoral rolls.
It described the police action as “extraordinary” which met with an “equally extraordinary display of defiance” from the youngsters.
The Guardian reported on how Delhi was put under a “severe lockdown” by shutting metro stations, cancelling trains and deploying “more than 25,000 police and security personnel” across the city with many pulled from other states.
“Over its 14 years in power, the Modi government has been rigidly intolerant of dissent,” The Guardian report said. “However, few protests have prompted such a draconian nationwide crackdown, signalling the government’s concern that this...