Delhi Court Orders Release of Cockroach Janta Party Leaders

A court in New Delhi ordered the release of Abhijeet Dipke and two other leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party, following a police crackdown that detained protesters demanding the election chief’s resignation.

Abhijeet Dipke and CJP Leaders Released Under Strict Peace Conditions

A New Delhi court freed Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das, and Ashutosh Ranka after police detained the trio directly on an Air India flight upon their arrival from Mumbai on Saturday. The CJP leaders had planned to mobilize thousands of demonstrators at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

The movement originated from an online satire campaign launched by Dipke in May. That digital effort followed a remark by Chief Justice Surya Kant, who had likened jobless youngsters to cockroaches. Dipke, who previously worked with the Aam Aadmi Party, had just completed a master’s degree at Boston University when he posted a question on X asking what would happen if all cockroaches came together.

Police Detain Thousands During New Delhi Protests

Ahead of the planned rallies, authorities transformed New Delhi into a fortified zone. Thousands of police and paramilitary personnel were deployed across the city, roads were barricaded, and offices, shops, and restaurants were shut as authorities moved to stop the demonstration organized by the CJP and other youth groups.

Estimates on the scale of the police response indicate that more than 2,000 people, including opposition politicians, journalists, and lawyers, were detained by police. Attempting a march from Dilli Haat toward Jantar Mantar, student activist Neha Bora was likewise intercepted and detained. Activist and social media influencer Dhruv Rathee was also among those detained and was released past midnight. They were all released later on Saturday. One woman who managed to evade the police and reach Connaught Place told us: In a democracy, everyone has the right to protest and to say if we are not happy. She added, Peaceful protests have been there for ages. We are not living in pre-independent India. We request the government to let us protest. The CJP has called for more protests on Sunday.

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Critics Target Voter List Revisions Affecting Minorities

The protests target Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over an ongoing voter list revision that critics say disproportionately benefits Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been in power for more than 12 years. Opponents argue that minorities, who are unlikely to support the Hindu nationalist ruling party, are disproportionately affected by the deletions. The row centers over a mammoth exercise to update electoral rolls nationwide, with the commission stating it is a routine exercise to weed out dead, duplicate, or ineligible voters. At least 130 million voter names have been purged from the rolls so far.

While the Election Commission insists that internal debates naturally involve diverse perspectives and rejects allegations of bias toward any political faction, Modi’s BJP has contended that its adversaries are attempting to subvert Indian democracy through unjustified attacks on lawful electoral procedures.

Opposition Leaders Condemn Government Detentions

The opposition Congress party’s president, Mallikarjun Kharge, slammed Modi’s government after the detentions, posting on X that the Modi government had turned the ‘Mother of Democracy’ into a ‘Muzzled Democracy!’.

“This is dictatorship, live and in front of us, just to protect a bureaucrat who steals elections for the BJP on Modi’s behest. They are murdering democracy in the daylight in the Indian capital,”

Ratna Singh

According to the CJP, the BJP worries that voter sentiment has turned decisively against them, threatening their prospects of retaining power.

The CJP has called its protests against Kumar “Season 2” on its social media handles, and stated that it would not stop until India’s election system was reformed.

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