India detains more than 1,000 at protest against election chief as Delhi locks down
With trains halted, mobile internet cut and thousands of police deployed, Indian authorities blocked a rally by the youth 'Cockroach' movement against the chief election commissioner.
Archive image · Photo: Subeesh Balan സുഭീഷ് ബാലൻ / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Police in New Delhi detained more than 1,000 people on Saturday, including protesters, opposition politicians, journalists, student leaders and lawyers, as well as founders of the satirical youth group Cockroach Janta Party. The movement had called a rally at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Protesters accuse the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using a revision of voter rolls, known as SIR, to sway election results.
Security forces sealed off the area before the protest began, and thousands of police and paramilitary personnel were deployed across the city. Trains to New Delhi were cancelled, mobile internet was suspended, and metro stations and markets were shut. Founder Abhijeet Dipke was detained on his flight after landing from Mumbai. Others detained included YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, lawyer Prashant Bhushan and politicians Yogendra Yadav and Mamata Banerjee. Small protests still took place elsewhere in the city.
BJP spokesman Sambit Patra called the demonstrators "anarchic elements" and said their protest had collapsed. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government of turning India into a "Muzzled Democracy." Amnesty International India and the Committee to Protect Journalists called for the release of those detained. The protests are seen as one of the most serious tests yet for Modi ahead of key state elections starting in early 2027.