India’s ‘cockroaches’ movement defies detentions over voter-roll dispute

India’s ‘cockroaches’ movement defies detentions over voter-roll dispute
The dispute centres on an electoral-roll revision that critics say has removed 130 million registered voters, potentially affecting minorities and economically vulnerable communities. They argue that the process could favour Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, while the Election Commission has rejected allegations of irregularities.

Ahead of an unauthorised demonstration near Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, the People’s Cockroaches Party said its leader, Abhijeet Dipke, and two other movement spokespeople had been detained. Police did not confirm those individual arrests, but security forces were reported to have stopped people approaching the planned gathering.

The opposition Congress party and the student-led movement cast the arrests as part of a wider crackdown. Rahul Gandhi urged supporters to continue, saying: “Keep protesting.” Ajinkya Shinde, a movement leader, said activists would return the next day and added, “Let the prisons be filled.” The UN human rights office, according to the same report, called for the immediate and unconditional release of people it described as arbitrarily detained.

Accounts of the scale remain contested. One report cited by the movement-focused coverage said more than 5,000 people had been detained since the morning, while Shinde put the figure at 15,000; police issued no public tally. A separate report framed the protest as resulting in more than 1,000 detainees, underscoring the uncertainty around the final count even as both accounts describe extensive detentions.

Despite the restrictions, demonstrations were reported elsewhere in the capital. The core divide remains unchanged: protesters see the voter-roll revision and police response as threats to political participation; election authorities say the clean-up is intended to remove duplicate, deceased and fraudulent registrations.

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