Delhi police detain Cockroach movement leaders before election protest

Police detained leaders of India’s youth-led Cockroach Janta Party as heavy security and roadblocks prevented protesters from reaching a planned demonstration in New Delhi on Saturday. The group wants Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign over allegations that changes to voter lists favor the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, an accusation the Election Commission and the BJP deny.

The BBC reported that hundreds of protesters had been detained. Al Jazeera put the figure at more than 1,000 and said those detained included opposition politicians, journalists, student leaders and lawyers. Delhi Police has not commented on the detentions, according to the BBC. Police had refused permission for the protest at Jantar Mantar, a landmark in the capital.

Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke and two other leaders, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were detained aboard a flight from Mumbai after it landed in Delhi. The group said they were taken to an undisclosed location. In a video Dipke shared from the plane, he told officers: “I have come to get arrested. I am not afraid of you guys.” Before arriving, he had warned that threats of jail would not stop the movement.

The authorities deployed tens of thousands of security personnel and barricaded roads, the BBC reported. Several trains were cancelled and dozens of metro stations closed from Friday night. Al Jazeera reported that mobile internet services were suspended and markets shut. Protesters could not get close to Jantar Mantar, though small demonstrations took place elsewhere in the city, including at Dilli Haat, according to Al Jazeera. Buses carrying detained protesters were seen leaving the area.

The Election Commission says its nationwide update of electoral rolls is a routine effort to remove dead, duplicate or ineligible voters. But tens of thousands of people in multiple states say they have been wrongly removed, the BBC reported. The CJP and opposition parties accuse Kumar of favoring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP; opposition parties also say voter deletions affected the outcome of some recent state elections won by the party. The BJP and the commission reject the allegations.

BJP spokesman Sambit Patra called the protesters “anarchic elements” and said their “flop show has been completely demolished.” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge condemned the detentions, writing that the government had turned the “Mother of Democracy” into a “Muzzled Democracy.” Amnesty International called for the release of people detained solely for peaceful assembly or expression, while the Committee to Protect Journalists urged police to release detained media workers.

The CJP, which is not registered as a political party, emerged in May after Dipke responded to a remark by India’s chief justice likening some jobless young people to “cockroaches.” The chief justice later said his comments had been misinterpreted. The movement grew during weeks of protests over education and unemployment. According to the BBC, a five-week demonstration ended in celebration in July after the education minister’s resignation. The group is seeking electoral reforms ahead of state elections.