Two leaders of India’s “Cockroach” youth movement have been sentenced to five days in jail after being detained during a protest in New Delhi demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the group said Wednesday.
Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were among around a dozen people detained by police on Tuesday after climbing over barricades and entering the grounds of Jantar Mantar, a historic observatory in central New Delhi that has long been used as a protest venue.
Police said Jantar Mantar was no longer an officially designated protest site and accused Ranka and Das of trespassing and violating prohibitory orders.
Their detention followed a major police crackdown over the weekend aimed at preventing mostly young demonstrators from gathering in the capital to demand Kumar’s resignation. Police briefly detained thousands of protesters.
“Jantar Mantar belongs to the people of India. We will reclaim it,” opposition leader Rahul Gandhi wrote on X, condemning the arrests as “an act of cowardice”.
Protests have intensified over a nationwide revision of voter lists that has removed more than 130 million names since last year. Critics allege that the exercise is politically motivated and could deprive millions of eligible voters of their voting rights.
The Election Commission and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government say the revision is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible entries from electoral rolls.
Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the “Cockroach” movement, also criticised Modi in a post on X.
“If you're so determined to crush dissent, have the courage to officially declare an Emergency instead of hiding behind these cowardly tactics,” Dipke wrote.
The “Cockroach” movement emerged this summer as an online satirical campaign after India’s chief justice compared unemployed young people to parasites. Many young Indians embraced the remark and adopted the cockroach as a symbol of resilience.
Protests led by the movement forced India’s education minister to resign in July, marking a rare setback for Modi, who has been in power for more than 12 years.