Indiaupdated 1h ago3 min read
Indian Police Detain Abhijeet Dipke, Over 1,000 Protesters in New Delhi Lockdown
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Abhijeet Dipke detained on landing in New Delhi ahead of planned protest. Police detained over 1,000 protesters, including opposition figures and journalists.
Detentions in Delhi
Indian police detained more than 1,000 protesters, opposition politicians, journalists, student union leaders, lawyers and the founders of the “Cockroach” youth movement in New Delhi as authorities moved to quash a demonstration demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The protests targeted the “special intensive revision” of India’s voter lists, which the protesters accused the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using to sway election results, in collusion with its appointees in the election commission, including Kumar.
Police detained the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, Abhijeet Dipke, along with associates Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, in an aeroplane upon arrival at New Delhi from Mumbai, and Dipke said, “I have come to get arrested. I am not afraid of you guys.”
The lockdown in the Indian capital included trains to New Delhi cancelled, mobile internet services suspended, and metro stations and markets shuttered, while security forces sealed off Jantar Mantar before the demonstration began.
BJP spokesman Sambit Patra dismissed the demonstrators as “anarchic elements,” saying, “Their flop show has been completely demolished,” as he told reporters that “India is calm and going ahead under good governance.”
Opposition and crackdown
Opposition parties and critics warned that the voter deletions affected the outcome of some recent state elections won by the BJP, and they cast a shadow on elections in the world’s largest democracy.
Rahul Gandhi described the crackdown as an act of “cowardice” and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval were “the villains of this story” who were “slowly finding the space closing around them. We are closing that space.”
The Election Commission of India rejected allegations of wrongdoing, saying the “special intensive revision” aims to remove duplicate and ineligible voters, while police detained thousands of protesters in a major crackdown.
DW Hindi’s Adarsh Sharma spoke to protesters as they faced the security crackdown, and one protester said, “We were running back and forth. When the police are moving forward, we go back.”
Another protester, Jasmine, said the demonstrators were trying to stop police from picking them up, and she argued, “Protesting is a fundamental right… it’s such a convoluted idea to take permission to protest.”
What is at stake
The protests demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over accusations that the revision of voter lists removed about 130 million voters from a draft roll, a figure the opposition said could disenfranchise millions.
The Election Commission and the government rejected claims of voter manipulation, and the Election Commission said the figure “comprises entries flagged during draft revision,” while voters wrongly removed can enroll again.
CNN reported that police detained Abhijeet Dipke and other leaders as their plane landed in New Delhi, and it showed Dipke shouting, “go ahead and arrest us! Victory to Mother India! Long live the revolution!”
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Nabin defended the crackdown, saying on X, “You cannot bear to see India moving forward as a self-reliant and empowered nation, and you are attempting to destabilize it at the behest of foreign forces.”
The dispute over the voter list revision, which opposition parties say affects citizens’ right to vote, continued to drive the youth movement’s campaign as authorities imposed sweeping security restrictions and suspended mobile internet in central Delhi.