Between barricades, protests persist as organisers demand CEC's resignation

Protest organisers vow to continue demonstrations demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar's resignation and cancellation of the SIR despite detentions and restrictions in Delhi.

“The roads last looked like this during the Covid lockdown,” an electric-rickshaw driver said, steering through the barricades of central Delhi in search of a route that would bring his passengers as close as possible to the “main protest site”. The city seemed to have been arranged around a prohibition. The instructions to the authorities appeared unequivocal: No part of Delhi was to become a protest site.

 

By Saturday afternoon, the restrictions and protesters had begun to acquire a rhythm of their own. Protesters were detained before they could assemble, organisers were picked up as they tried to announce new meeting points, and those who managed to reach central Delhi found themselves searching for somewhere they were permitted to stand.

 

The protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had not disappeared. It had become a moving target.

 

The movement’s core leadership -- including Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), and its co-convenors Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das -- was detained after landing in Delhi on Saturday. They were released on Sunday following a court order, subject to a condition that they refrain for a year from activities deemed a “breach of peace.” But they remained unmoved and announced that the protests demanding Kumar’s resignation would continue, in Delhi and now also across the country.

 

The police action had begun well before the first large gathering could take shape. Hundreds of volunteers affiliated with Left-wing student organisations were picked up on Saturday from party offices, private homes, and public transport. Some were detained before they could reach the designated protest areas. Others made it closer to central Delhi, only to find themselves either in police custody or without a clear idea of where to assemble.

 

As the barricades multiplied, protesters began looking for transport out of the cordoned-off areas. Some appeared ready to head home, their plans overtaken by confusion. Then Neha Bora, president of the All India Students Association (Aisa) and the only member of the movement’s core organising team still free by that afternoon, issued a fresh call: Assemble at INA, where the metro was operating and internet connectivity was available. She, too, was detained there.

 

By then, the scattered gatherings had begun to find direction. Protesters made repeated attempts to reach central Delhi, leading to confrontations with the police in areas including Lajpat Market and near the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters. The question was no longer simply whether the protest would happen, but whether the authorities would allow it to happen anywhere.

 

On Sunday, the movement tried again. After being released, Bora -- having kept Sunday’s meeting point under wraps until the afternoon -- subsequently called for a demonstration at RK Ashram Marg at 2.30 pm. She began the protest march, and was picked up again, along with other protesters.

 

Students’ Federation of India (SFI) President Adarsh M Saji, General Secretary Sriijan Bhattacharya, and other demonstrators were also picked up from Rajiv Chowk metro station after the CJP leadership’s release prompted a renewed collective call to protest.

 

The day’s events were a continuation of Saturday’s crackdown. But for some of those who continued to turn up, the SIR was a matter of personal concern.

 

Several protesters carried their forms and spoke of names missing from electoral rolls. “My husband received a letter saying that you have six children and this looks factually incorrect. His name, along with the names of our children (those of voting age), has been removed,” said a woman who was accompanied by her three daughters. Another young woman said her parents’ names had been removed from the electoral rolls because they travelled for work.

 

The possibility of detention and confrontation with the police had not deterred everyone from coming. Unlike the previous CJP-led protest in July, which at one point became the subject of a social-media meme fest, relatively few of those present appeared to be attending for online visibility.

 

Some, however, were unable to reach the protest areas at all.

 

The detentions on Saturday included four former chief ministers: Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Pinarayi Vijayan, and Manik Sarkar. Dipankar Bhattacharya, John Brittas (who after being released, according to SFI, was attacked by Delhi police personnel on Sunday during protest), and Brinda Karat were among other politicians detained. According to accounts from those involved in the protests, the buses used to transport detainees were largely private vehicles, moving between INA and Central Delhi and police stations in border areas, including Kapashera and Dwarka.

 

Journalists and lawyers carrying valid identity cards were also among those detained. Allegations of police mishandling continued on Sunday, with videos circulating online that appeared to show journalists being roughed up and held inside police vehicles. Saji said nearly 10 SFI members had lost consciousness because of what he described as police mishandling. He shared a video recorded from a mobile ambulance and said some members were being taken to undisclosed locations.

 

The United Nations Human Rights Office expressed concern over reports of mass detentions of demonstrators, protest leaders, civil-society members, lawyers, and journalists before and during the protests in Delhi. The Ministry of External Affairs responded that the concerns were “unwarranted” and amounted to unacceptable interference in India’s internal affairs.

 

Soon after his release, the CJP’s Das described the situation as “emergency-like”. At the party’s first press conference following the release of its members, he alleged that the police had detained them without formal notice, seized their phones, and prevented them from contacting a lawyer.

 

“The protests are on and they will happen not just in Delhi but the whole country,” Das said. “This protest will not stop till Gyanesh resigns,” Ranka added.

 

Former SFI President Aishe Ghosh alleged that Right-wing groups had been allowed to assault CJP protesters. She also raised allegations concerning the assault of a minor girl and a boy. “Jantar Mantar 2.0 is on,” she said.

 

The CJP’s previous mass mobilisation had centred on examination reforms and led to the resignation of the then education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. Although initiated by the party, that movement came to involve several organisations and individuals, including AISA president Bora. The current agitation, by contrast, has been presented from the beginning as a joint call by the CJP and Left-wing groups.

 

“This is an agenda-based partnership, not ideology. We cannot make the CJP believe in the Left and we cannot start believing in any other ideology. But we can find middle grounds for larger issues,” said a source closely associated with Bora.

 

The arrangement has also raised questions about responsibility when a protest involving multiple organisations leads to detentions and police cases. The issue had come up during the July movement, too, according to a source working closely with Aisa. The source said the core leadership could issue a call for a protest, but participation in a movement of this scale involved a wider group of people taking responsibility. “They came last time. Got roughed up or detained by the authorities but they will continue to come because they know what is at stake. The return is way more than the consequences and those who believe this will join us,” the source said.

 

Farmers who had been expected to join the demonstrations in greater numbers were also prevented from entering Delhi, according to the Bharatiya Kisan Union. “Our farmers, in thousands, were stopped at the Singhu border. Some were detained at their homes in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh,” said Yudhveer Singh, the union’s national general secretary.

 

Singh had earlier said farmers’ participation would be more substantial than the symbolic support offered during the July movement. “Eight to ten major unions are offering support. When they did not let us cross the border, our farmers held protests in over 50 districts in UP,” he said, adding that the unions were waiting for the next call.

 

Sources in Aisa and the SFI told Business Standard that protests demanding the cancellation of the SIR and Kumar’s resignation would continue on Monday and through the coming week. The groups would also attempt to secure Jantar Mantar as a protest site, they said. “509 SFI members were detained early morning on Saturday, even before the protests started,” a source said. The source added that organisers had called participants from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, but most had been unable to enter the capital.

 

The main Opposition Congress, meanwhile, announced a separate protest with the INDIA bloc for Monday. Rahul Gandhi, the party’s leader and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, alleged that members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had been involved in attacks on protesters. A Congress source said the Indian Youth Congress, the INDIA bloc, and Gandhi were already protesting and that these demonstrations would continue separately alongside the other protests.

 

The government offered a different account of the confrontations. Addressing an event on Saturday, Union minister Piyush Goyal said the country could not be run if the Opposition misbehaved with security forces. “We have to think and worry about this behaviour. We have to sensitise the nation as we don’t know what are the forces involved behind this,” he said.

 

As the weekend ended, the organisers were preparing for further demonstrations, while the authorities continued to restrict gatherings in central Delhi. The protests had drawn together groups that did not share a common ideology but had agreed on the demand for cancellation of the SIR and Kumar’s resignation.

 

For the protesters who spoke about names missing from electoral rolls, the immediate concern was more specific: Whether they and their families would remain on the voter lists.