Delhi Police on Friday detained several protesters as a march against the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls moved towards the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters in central Delhi.
Many prominent political figures, including CPM's Brinda Karat and CPI leaders P. Sandosh and Annie Raja, along with farmers, students and members of social organisations, held the march carrying the national flag and placards, demanding the resignation of chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and the scrapping of the SIR.
The march, called by the Delhi Coordination Committee of People Against SIR, started near the Gole Dak Khana at the intersection of Kalibari Marg and Bhai Vir Singh Marg. The protesters were stopped near Bangla Sahib Gurudwara, 500-600 metres before the EC headquarters. They staged demonstrations there for a few hours before the police detained several of them.
Before detaining them, the police announced that they had imposed Section 163 of the BNSS in the area, prohibiting mass gatherings.
Student organisations, including the SFI, AISA, AISF and the Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS), were part of the protest.
Traffic diversions were enforced in parts of central Delhi because of the march. Security was tightened across central Delhi, with Delhi Police and Rapid Action Force personnel deployed in large numbers.
When the police stopped the protesters, they sat down and held a "People's Parliament", as announced by the organisers.
"This is not about reclaiming Jantar Mantar; this is about saving democracy and the country," a protester said.
Another protester said that since Jantar Mantar had been denotified as a protest site, every street of the country would become a Jantar Mantar, pointing to demonstrations announced by several organisations across India.
The People Against SIR has also launched a website providing information about protests in different cities.
According to the collective, demonstrations have been planned in 88 cities across 18 states, involving 145 organisations, with programmes scheduled from Friday until November 1.
Scientists' letter
A group of independent scientists has written an open letter to the EC demanding the scrapping of the SIR of electoral rolls.
"We, the undersigned scientists of India, express our deep concern about the summary exclusion of large sections of the citizenry from electoral rolls through the SIR of electoral rolls," the letter stated.
"The right to vote is a fundamental pillar of democracy. The arbitrary or unjustified deletion of eligible voters, particularly among the poor, migrant workers, marginalised communities and other vulnerable sections, strikes at the very foundation of democratic rights."
They cited a legal example that follows the principle of presumption of innocence of the accused person until proven guilty.
"By the same logic, no genuine electoral revision can justify depriving citizens of their voting rights by subjecting them to cumbersome procedures, failing to provide adequate safeguards for restoring their names to the electoral rolls, and denying them a meaningful opportunity to establish their eligibility," the scientists said, demanding transparency and accountability in the periodic revision of the electoral rolls, immediate restoration of the names of all wrongfully excluded eligible voters, and effective safeguards to ensure that no citizen is arbitrarily deprived of the right to vote.
The open letter has been signed by many researchers and academics from institutions including the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Calcutta University, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Calcutta, and the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai.