Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, allegations of irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision i.e. SIR process and protests by the opposition are being discussed not only in India but also in the foreign media.
Outlets like Britain's The Guardian, Qatar's Al Jazeera, Germany's Deutsche Welle and Pakistan's Dawn and Geo News have covered this entire controversy from different angles.
The opposition is continuously demanding the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar and cancellation of the SIR process.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi and many opposition leaders demonstrated on the streets of Delhi on Tuesday and Wednesday regarding this demand.
Apart from this, Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) is also an attacker and is alleging collusion between Modi government and Gyanesh Kumar.
What Britain's 'The Guardian' wrote
Britain's The Guardian has seen it as a dispute over the voter list and the electoral process.
In its October 5 report, the newspaper wrote, "The Supreme Court of India has demanded accountability from the government and the Election Commission amid widespread protests and a controversial campaign to remove the names of millions of voters from the electoral rolls. Large-scale demonstrations have taken place across the country in recent days. Activists from opposition parties, student organizations and the youth-led 'Cockroach' movement have taken to the streets to demand the resignation of India's Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Have demonstrated."
The newspaper writes, "There are allegations that this revision of voter lists specifically targets minorities such as Muslims, who are not traditionally voters of Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party."
However, The Guardian has also given space to the Election Commission's clarification which states that SIR is the process of updating the voter list by removing the names of people who have changed their address and shifted somewhere else and those who have died.
Al Jazeera: 'Questions raised on India's elections'
Qatar's Al Jazeera covered the detention of Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders on 6 October.
According to its report, the protesters are demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and alleging irregularities in voter registration during the SIR. Al Jazeera also presented the Election Commission's stand that the purpose of SIR is to correct the voter list by removing names of duplicate, dead or ineligible voters.
The newspaper writes, "Critics say the process requires documents that are confusing and difficult to obtain, putting millions of eligible voters at risk of being left out. Election Commission data shows that voter turnout could be up to 30 percent in some areas."
Earlier, on October 2, Al Jazeera had published an analysis - 'Can India's cockroach movement oust Modi's election chief?' (Will India's cockroach movement oust Modi's election chief?)
In this, quoting political analysts, it has been said that the government has taken strategic lessons from the previous protests and this time it is trying to stop the protesters before they form a large gathering. The analysis also says that the young protesters of CJP are now more experienced than before.
Here's an important point: Al Jazeera's analysis does not limit the challenge to the government to the Rahul Gandhi-led opposition alone. Youth movement and opposition coming on the streets on the same issue has been considered a big factor.
what kind of coverage in pakistan
Pakistan's leading newspaper Dawn published a report on the detention of Rahul Gandhi and opposition MPs on October 7.
In the report, the protest has been described as a new political challenge in the midst of Modi's third term. This includes the detention of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, allegations being made by the opposition on the Election Commission and BJP's reply.
Pakistan's Geo News on October 5 gave prominence to the Supreme Court seeking answers from the government and the Election Commission.
Its report mentions the demonstration by the opposition and workers, the demand for resignation of Gyanesh Kumar and the allegations being made regarding the SIR. The Election Commission's denial of the allegations has also been included.
According to Geo News, 'Gyanesh Kumar is accused of working at the behest of PM Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party BJP.'
It also mentions the Indian Express report which claims that two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, expressed disagreement 14 times in the last 10 months on issues related to various decisions of the Election Commission.
Challenge before Modi
An analysis by Sumit Ganguly, Senior Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, was published on October 1 in Foreign Policy, a prestigious American news magazine and digital publication focused on international relations, global politics and economics. Its title is: "Modi faces protest threat over Election Commission scandal"
Ganguly argues that this matter can be important for the Modi government because the questions raised regarding the Election Commission are now giving a common issue to the opposition and youth movements like CJP.
He considers the alleged differences among the election commissioners as mentioned in the Indian Express report to be an important basis of this dispute.
But his analysis is not entirely positive for Rahul Gandhi either. Ganguly writes that there are questions on whether Congress and Rahul Gandhi have the political and organizational capacity to run this movement continuously or not. According to him, if Congress, CJP and regional parties stand together on this issue, then only the situation like the most serious challenge after 2014 can arise in front of BJP.
