Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party leaders at Jantar Mantar Tuesday. They were demanding the election chief’s resignation.
NEW DELHI – Delhi Police detained leaders of India’s Cockroach Janta Party early Tuesday after they climbed over barricades and entered Jantar Mantar, a historic observatory that has long served as a protest site in the capital. Party leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were among those taken away, and Al Jazeera reported that Ajinkya Shinde and about 20 volunteers were also detained. Video shared by the group showed them waving the national flag and chanting slogans calling for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign. It was not immediately clear where police took them.
The detentions came a day after authorities announced that Jantar Mantar would no longer be a designated protest venue and named three alternative locations where demonstrations can be held with permission. Party member Ranka said the group had asked Delhi Police for a date to protest there shortly before the change was announced. Party founder Abhijeet Dipke said the group would not accept the decision. Security has been heavy across Delhi since the weekend, when police detained and later released thousands of people, including several journalists, ahead of a planned protest. Metro stations were closed and train services were disrupted. A court ordered Dipke and two other leaders released after they were detained on Saturday, and the group said the order required them to maintain public peace.
The protests concern a revision of India’s electoral rolls that has removed tens of millions of names. Opponents of Prime Minister Narendra Modi allege the exercise benefits his Bharatiya Janata Party, a charge the party and the Election Commission reject. Critics also say the process could exclude eligible voters by making it harder to prove eligibility. Anger grew after The Indian Express reported that Kumar disregarded concerns raised by the two other election commissioners about changes to voter registration. The Election Commission has said its decisions were unanimous.
Opposition parties marched in Delhi on Monday from Connaught Place to the Supreme Court, and the Congress party, the country’s main opposition force, petitioned the court to challenge the revision exercise. The Cockroach Janta Party began as online satire after Chief Justice Surya Kant compared some unemployed young people to cockroaches during a May court hearing. He later said his remarks were misinterpreted. The group went on to lead weeks of protests over exam irregularities and unemployment that ended with the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and it has since become a wider pressure group.
This report draws on information from BBC News, Al Jazeera and NBC News.