NEW DELHI, Oct 16 (Reuters) – Police warned the founder of India’s ‘Cockroach’ movement against going ahead with a protest on Friday, local media reported, setting the stage for a possible confrontation with the group that is demanding the resignation of the election chief.
The youth-led ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ (CJP), opposition groups, and student organisations have held almost daily protests this month demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over a revision of voter lists that critics say favours Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
More than 130 million voters were deleted during the revision but the Election Commission has denied favouring any party and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol. The BJP has accused rivals of trying to undermine democracy by wrongly questioning legitimate electoral processes.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke called Friday’s protest in support of two CJP leaders detained and sent to jail this week for five days for demonstrating at a protest site in violation of a ban.
The group and left-wing student organisations have urged supporters to gather at the Central Park in New Delhi’s busy Connaught Place shopping and food district on Friday evening to wave and hoist the national flag.
Dipke said police visited him and served a notice saying the group was engaging in “unlawful activities and inciting people”.
“Don’t we even have the freedom to hoist our own tricolour in our own nation?” he said in a statement.
The notice said that prohibitory orders were in effect in Connaught Place and no permission had been given for a rally, news agency ANI reported, citing police sources.
The notice also said that legal action would be taken if Dipke went to the location, ANI said.
Delhi Police did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
DON’T JOIN PROTESTS, POLICE WARN
Security was stepped up in the city and police urged people not to join “such assemblies”, saying it can instead facilitate a group of select people to carry the national flag and sing the national anthem at a “suitable place”.
The civic authority said the park itself would be closed for two days “due to administrative reasons”.
Traders in the area petitioned the Supreme Court to prevent the protest, which they say “would cause severe loss”, and demanded compensation for losses suffered during a similar rally planned over the weekend that was foiled by a security crackdown.
The cockroach movement has emerged as one of the biggest political challenges faced by Modi and his BJP in his 12 years in power.
A weeks-long sit-in by its supporters earlier this year forced Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over exam paper leaks.
The latest demonstrations erupted after The Indian Express newspaper reported that Kumar’s two deputies raised concerns internally about voter list changes, registration procedures and digital systems.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the demonstrations were main opposition Congress party’s attempt to “seize power”.
“Instead of channelling the energy of the youth toward nation-building, they are being used as pawns in the politics of anarchy,” he said at a media briefing on Friday.
(Reporting by Sakshi Dayal and Arpan Chaturvedi; Editing by YP Rajesh and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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