NEW DELHI — Authorities in India took extraordinary measures on Friday to prevent protesters from assembling in the capital Delhi ahead of a massive rally called for Saturday by the “Cockroach” youth movement to demand the country’s elections chief quit over a sweeping revision of voter lists.The government deployed thousands of police and paramilitary personnel and ordered the suspension of mass transit in the city. They also effectively put many would-be protesters under house arrest.The moves came in response to a call by the Gen Z movement known as the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) for people from all over the country to converge in central Delhi for a protest on Saturday against what they say is a politically motivated purge of India’s voter roll.Police said the CJP did not have permission for Saturday’s protest and could face legal action if protesters violated rules.Several long-distance trains coming into Delhi were canceled and 57 metro stations were closed from Friday night, authorities said after organizers said they were expecting tens of thousands of people to join the protest.Opposition parties say the voter deletions affected the outcome of some recent state elections that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won, and have cast a shadow on the electoral process in the world’s largest democracy.The BJP and the Election Commission of India deny allegations of election manipulation, although opposition parties say Muslim voters and other minorities, who are unlikely to support the Hindu nationalist BJP, are disproportionately impacted by the deletions.The anger against the voter verification drive that began last year has become one of the biggest political controversies since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, and comes ahead of crucial state elections starting early next year.At least seven Indian states are due to hold elections in 2027, including Uttar Pradesh ruled by the BJP. The state is India’s most populous and is considered a bellwether in national politics. Parliamentary polls are not due until 2029.Election Commission data, which is also cited by BJP, shows about 130 million names, more than the population of Japan, have been deleted from voter lists during the verification exercise, including 63 million people who had relocated, 30 million who could not be traced, and 28 million who were dead.Saturday’s rally is to be held at a monument called Jantar Mantar, which has been a protest site for many years.The restrictions imposed by law enforcement authorities led India’s highest court to issue a rare emergency order on Friday afternoon, urging the government to reconsider the limits and offer an alternative space for the protest.Responding to an appeal from an opposition party politician, the court also said the city’s metro service should not be shut down completely.Saturday’s planned protest follows a week of nationwide demonstrations demanding the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar, the head of India’s Election Commission, a body that was long held in high regard for running fair polls but has recently come under intense public criticism because of the voter roll revision. Critics say it is an effort to entrench Modi’s power.In the capital, opposition parties and other activist groups have held daily protests for the last week, only to be aggressively restrained by police and then detained.On Friday, videos spread on social media of police officers pulling young would-be protesters from trains bound for Delhi in various parts of the country.There was a heavy police presence in central Delhi on Friday. Around Jantar Mantar, tall yellow police barricades were chained together. Loudspeakers were erected at traffic circles, playing announcements warning people not to gather. “Violation may lead to legal action against you,” the announcements said.Thousands of police and paramilitary forces, including some from sensitive areas such as Indian Kashmir, were being sent into the capital for the protest, according to a government document seen by Reuters.However, the Cockroach movement remained defiant.”The youth of this country are no longer scared of you,” founder Abhijeet Dipke said in a post on X, addressing Modi ahead of the protests.The government’s heavy-handed efforts this week go considerably further than recent attempts to stop anti-government agitation.This summer’s protests by the Cockroach party uncorked a generation’s rage over a dysfunctional college entrance exam system and won the rare ouster of a government minister. The government did not stop the protesters from gathering this summer but responded with force.On Friday, Delhi police said they had denied permission for the rally, saying the organizers had not asked for permission sufficiently in advance and broke rules the last time they protested, without offering evidence of which rules they broke.In a news conference, Nupur Prasad, a senior police official, said “reasonable preventive restrictions” had been put in place. She warned legal action against those who violate the order.Police tactics have succeeded, to an extent, in preventing protesters from reaching Delhi.Kunal Choudhary, 26, was planning to lead a delegation of around 30 people to Delhi from a town three hours away by bus. But on Thursday evening, police officers showed up at his home and have not left, he said, offering no warrant for his arrest.“They showed me a WhatsApp group where there was a list with my name also. They were given orders to go to all those people’s homes,” he said.Ashutosh Ranka, a leader of the Cockroach party, said in a voice note to The Times on Friday evening that the protest would go on. “The government is in complete panic,” he said in the voice note. “They don’t know how to deal with peaceful protesters, and that’s why they are resorting to absolutely dictatorial measures.”“It’s a shame that in the world’s largest democracy you have to protest to even go and protest at a designated protest site,” he added, referring to Jantar Mantar.
Keep Up to Date with our Weekly Newsletter
