Cockroach Janta Party supporters hold the country's national flags during a protest at Connaught Place in New Delhi, Friday.ARUN SANKAR/AFP/Getty Images
Indian authorities increased security in the capital and closed a central New Delhi park on Friday ahead of a flag-waving protest called by the youth “Cockroach” movement demanding the resignation of India’s election chief.
Protests by the youth and opposition parties have intensified over an ongoing review of voter lists that has removed more than 130 million names since last year. Critics say the exercise is politically motivated, threatens to disenfranchise millions more, and has disproportionately affected minorities, particularly Muslims. They have demanded the resignation of election chief Gyanesh Kumar.
The Election Commission and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration deny the allegations and say the revision is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible entries.
Friday’s protest is part of a growing campaign that has put Modi’s government under pressure and comes a week after a police crackdown on protesters in New Delhi.
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Modi has not publicly commented on the protests. Some of his party leaders have dismissed the demonstrators as “anarchists” and suggested, without offering evidence, that they are backed by foreign powers.
“Waving the tricolor [Indian flag] is not a crime,” Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the “Cockroach” movement, said Thursday. He urged supporters unable to travel to New Delhi to raise the flag and demonstrate in their own communities.
Police asked people not to join the rally but offered to allow a small group to carry the national flag and sing the anthem at an approved location.
The “Cockroach” movement began as an online satirical campaign this summer after India’s chief justice compared unemployed young people to parasites. Many young Indians embraced the remark, adopting the cockroach as a symbol of resilience. It has since expanded into a nationwide protest movement of young people. Protests led by the group forced the resignation of Modi’s education minister in July, a rare setback for the prime minister, who has been in power for more than 12 years.