Indian Youth Movement Leaders Freed, Vow to Continue Protests
Leaders of India's 'Cockroach' movement were released from detention after protesting a controversial voter list revision, and vowed to continue their demonstrations demanding the election chief's resignation.
NEW DELHI -- Leaders of a popular Indian youth movement have vowed to continue protests after being released from detention, following a police crackdown on demonstrations against a controversial revision of voter lists. The movement, known as the Cockroach Janata Party, is demanding the resignation of the country’s election chief.
Authorities removed more than 130 million voters from the list since last year, a move critics allege is politically motivated. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Election Commission deny these allegations.
The movement’s three leaders — Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka — were freed on the condition that they commit “no breach of peace for one year,” according to the movement's legal director. It remains unclear what this condition entails or if it will impact their participation in future protests.
Police detained the leaders on Saturday after their flight landed in New Delhi, as they were preparing to lead a demonstration. Following the protests, authorities implemented a broad security crackdown in the capital, detaining over 2,000 protesters, including opposition lawmakers. Train services to New Delhi were canceled, metro stations were closed, and mobile internet was suspended in parts of the city. Most detainees were released late Saturday.
After his release, Dipke criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him “an embarrassment to India.” Das urged supporters to take to the streets, stating, “A situation has been created where the state is at war with its own citizens.”
Small groups of protesters returned to the capital on Sunday, but police quickly dispersed most demonstrations, with some protesters detained again. The protesters are specifically calling for the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar, the chief election commissioner.
Modi’s party maintains that the voter revision is necessary to remove duplicate and ineligible entries. The Cockroach movement originated as a satirical online campaign this summer after India's chief justice compared unemployed young people to parasites. Many young Indians adopted the cockroach as a symbol of resilience.
Earlier protests led by the group contributed to the resignation of Modi’s education minister in July, marking a rare setback for the prime minister.