(Hanoi = Yonhap News) Correspondent Park Jin-hyung = When the Indian Generation Z group Cockroach People's Party (CJP) attempted to hold a large-scale protest in the capital New Delhi on the 10th (local time) targeting unfair suspicions by the Election Commission, the authorities deployed up to tens of thousands of police forces throughout Delhi and began forcible suppression, including arresting CJP leaders and thousands of protestors en masse.
CJP said in a statement that three of its leaders, including founder Abhijit Deepke (31), co-founder Saurabh Das and spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka, were detained by police at the Delhi airport this morning.
Local TV footage showed the founder of Deepke telling police officers, "I came to be arrested. Arrest me. I am not afraid of you."
One police officer responded, โThis is not an arrest,โ and โPlease cooperate.โ
They protested in Bengaluru, the southern information technology (IT) industry hub, on the 8th, and then arrived at Delhi airport by plane via Mumbai to protest in New Delhi, but were arrested when they arrived there.
CJP originally planned to start the protest this morning at 'Jantar Mantar', a government-designated protest site in Delhi.
However, the day before, the local police refused to allow the protest on the grounds that the application for the demonstration was submitted late and announced that judicial action would be taken against those who do not comply.
The police deployed a large number of security personnel throughout Delhi, including the protest site, from the previous day to block protesters from gathering at Jantar Mantar.
To this end, Bloomberg News reported that up to 60,000 police and other security personnel were on standby for deployment from the previous day.
On this day, police installed barricades and concrete blocks at major entrances to the city to block vehicle traffic and conducted checks and searches, and also stopped buses to check whether protesters were on board.
In addition, 45 subway stations and markets were closed, several trains heading to New Delhi were canceled, and mobile communication networks in areas where protests were scheduled to be held and downtown areas were blocked since the night before.
The police also deployed anti-demonstration vehicles equipped with water cannons and tear gas launchers throughout the city and issued a warning broadcast that gatherings of more than five people were prohibited.
However, in downtown Delhi, protesters criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Election Commission and shouted slogans such as "Long Live the Revolution" as they ran away, but were caught by the police and taken away in police buses by the dozen.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that other protesters were arriving at the scene one after another.
Tanya Negi, a college student from Mumbai who came from Mumbai with two friends this morning, told the Associated Press, "We are a democratic country, but peaceful protests are being suppressed by force. Why is Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi afraid of India's youth?"
Police also arrested Marxist Communist Party of India (CPI-M) leader Brinda Karat and K.K. Shailaja and critic Dhruv Rathi, who had 19 million followers on Instagram, were also arrested.
Additionally, four reporters from two local online media outlets who were covering the protests and some lawyers protesting outside the Delhi Supreme Court building were also arrested.
In response, Arvind Kejriwal of the opposition Ordinary People's Party (AAP) said in a statement, "Arresting 'cockroaches' as soon as they get off the plane shows an unprecedented level of fear (on the part of the government)," and added, "We are living under an absolute dictatorship."
John Brittas, another opposition lawmaker, told AP, "The entire city is under siege. Citizens are being driven out," and asked, "Is there democracy in this country?"
Previously, the CJP recently began a protest demanding the resignation of Election Commission Chairman Gyanesh Kumar and strengthening the independence and transparency of the Election Commission in relation to allegations that the Election Commission changed the voter list to favor Prime Minister Modi's ruling People's Party (BJP).
During the process of revising the voter list, Chairman Kumar received issues and protests about 10 times from the other two election committee members, raising suspicions that he had deleted a large number of opposition party supporters from the list and increased the number of ruling party supporters.
In the process of revising the list, the National Election Commission deleted about 130 million people, including about 63 million voters who had moved their residence, about 30 million whose whereabouts were unknown, and 28 million people who had died.
In response, the National Election Commission explained that these numbers refer to those classified as problematic during the drafting stage of the voter list, and that voters who were incorrectly deleted can be re-registered on the list.
