Indian police locked down central Delhi after leaders of the “cockroach” youth movement called for protests on Saturday to demand the resignation of the country’s top poll official.
Police had already detained nearly 1,000 protesters by Saturday morning, local media reported, and put traffic curbs in place.
Authorities shut schools in the central areas of the national capital, shifting classes online, and advised hotels to turn away youngsters arriving from outside the city as the youth movement which forced the resignation of India’s education minister earlier this year announced a demonstration for the weekend.
The dispute centres around the election commission’s controversial revision to voter rolls which saw over 130 million voters lose the right to universal franchise.
In recent weeks opposition parties and student groups have held a series of protests in Delhi and other places calling on chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign. Now, they have been joined by the Cockroach Janta Party.
“I’ll be landing in Delhi tomorrow and will march to Jantar Mantar, come what may," Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the movement, said on Friday.
"The youth of this country are no longer scared of you," he added, addressing prime minister Narendra Modi.
To thwart the protests, the administration under Mr Modi’s BJP issued a slew of directions, installing roadblocks, closing metro and train stations, and massing police and paramilitary forces.
Mr Dipke said the curbs were a sign that Mr Modi had admitted defeat even before the cockroach protests had begun.
“The mass crackdown on protesters in the national capital and the shutdown of Delhi are not signs of strength, but of a leader terrified of his own people,” he posted on X on Saturday.
Modi has accepted defeat even before our protest has begun.
The mass crackdown on protesters and the shutdown of Delhi are not signs of strength, but of a leader terrified of his own people.
Police had earlier asked the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to close entry and exit gates of 57 metro stations across the national capital for security reasons. They also asked for fewer metro services, citing the possibility of "unruly" mobs, according to Reuters.
Hotels in Paharganj, 3-4 km from Jantar Mantar, the main site for the demonstrations, said they had received instructions to restrict accommodation for certain guests ahead of the protests, The Indian Express reported.
The New Delhi Traders Association, meanwhile, advised shops, offices and restaurants in the central areas of Connaught Place to remain closed on Saturday, while several schools in the city cancelled on-campus activities or moved classes online.
The Wire reported that police had created temporary detention centres in at least 50 places.
The railways ministry said on Friday it had cancelled some long-distance trains to Delhi that were due to arrive early on Saturday “in view of anticipated severe road traffic congestion”.
The Supreme Court raised concerns over the closure of metro stations, saying the restrictions would affect thousands of commuters, as it pointed towards students, employees, and senior citizens travelling to the satellite cities of Noida and Gurgaon.
“Everybody does not have a car,” chief justice Surya Kant said. “You cannot bring everything to a halt and leave people without any transport facility.”
It asked the government to ensure that metro and train services to the capital were not completely suspended ahead of the 10 October protests.
“We make it clear that there shall be no complete prohibition on movement of metro trains,” the court said, adding that the services should continue in a regulated manner to minimise inconvenience.
Police in the capital denied permission for the cockroach demonstrations, saying protesters could face legal action if they violated rules.
They also cautioned the public against participating in “unnecessary protest”, making announcements at several places, including a mosque in Delhi.
“Please make your children and family members aware that they should not participate in any unnecessary protests,” a policeman could be heard saying in a video circulating on social media.
A senior police official told the Print that several public squares and marketplaces had been used to “disseminate information”, urging people to not join the “unlawful” protest.
“There has not been any permission given for any such larger mobilisation of people on the streets in the capital over the last few days, and the situation remains the same for the protest call given for 10 October.”
Police cited late submission of the application and violation of rules during a previous demonstration as reasons for denying the permission, according to the PTI news agency.
Thousands of police and paramilitary forces, including from sensitive areas such as Jammu and Kashmir, were mobilised to Delhi. At least 70 companies of Central Reserve Police Force comprising some 7,000 personnel deployed in West Bengal and Chhattisgarh were being moved to Delhi on the instructions of the home ministry, led by Mr Modi’s second-in-command Amit Shah.
Taking a dig at the central government over the restrictions, Mr Dipke said: “Shut down entire country if you are scared of youth.”
The cockroach party claimed that police in several states had detained thousands of its supporters as they headed for the protests in Delhi.
Police in the central Madhya Pradesh state detained dozens of students travelling by the Goa Express train to the capital for the protests.
India, the world's largest democracy with some 960 million eligible voters in 2024, started the revision of electoral rolls last year ahead of local elections in Bihar state. It has now covered the majority of the states.
Opposition parties and critics say the latest revision, the first in about two decades, constitutes mass disenfranchisement to favour Mr Modi’s BJP. They want the exercise scrapped and the old voter lists reinstated.
The election commission says the numbers represent voter entries flagged during a draft revision, in an exercise still incomplete, while those wrongly removed can enrol again.
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