New Delhi (GNP): India’s youth-led protest movement is gaining strength despite a tightening police crackdown, with demonstrators demanding the resignation of the country’s chief election commissioner over allegations of voter-roll manipulation.
The pressure on the movement rose on Wednesday when two leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), Ashutosh Ranka, 30, and Saurav Das, 27, were remanded in custody for five days. Delhi Police said the pair were held for alleged repeated attempts to disturb public peace and break the law.
The arrests followed an incident on Tuesday at Jantar Mantar, a long-standing protest site in central New Delhi. Ranka and Das jumped security barricades there and waved the national flag. Police have since sealed the area with metal barriers and deployed personnel around it, after announcing on Monday that the site no longer appears on the list of approved protest venues.
Demonstrations still went ahead in the capital on Wednesday, and police detained protesters and put them on buses. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke has now called on supporters to gather in Connaught Place on Friday. He has also urged people who cannot reach Delhi to hold marches in their own cities.
At the centre of the dispute is a revision of the electoral rolls that began last year and has removed more than 133 million names from voter lists. CJP activists and opposition parties accuse the Election Commission of manipulating the rolls to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Critics also say the exercise has hit minorities hardest, particularly Muslims. Election authorities reject this and say the revision was meant to remove duplicate, deceased and fraudulent entries.
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The crackdown has drawn criticism beyond the protest movement. Human Rights Watch urged the government on Wednesday to respect the right to peaceful protest and to speak with young demonstrators about concerns over voting rights and election fairness instead of jailing them.
A woman who gave her name only as Atira also alleged at a news conference in New Delhi on Wednesday that police beat her while she was in detention. Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi appeared alongside her.
Gandhi has backed the detained leaders and rejected the idea that waving the flag at a peaceful protest is a crime. He said, “Waving the Tricolour at Jantar Mantar in a peaceful protest is not a crime.” Dipke, calling on supporters to keep marching, said, “Our flag is our pride and waving it is not a crime.”
Managing Editor at Global News Pakistan (GNP), with a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from Riphah International University, graduated with a Gold Medal. Reach out at sabahtareengnp@gmail.com
