Indian authorities have imposed extraordinary security measures to block protesters from joining a demonstration called by the "Cockroach" movement in New Delhi. The main leaders of the party were also detained.
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Below, you can review news from India from Saturday, October 10:
Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke and other party leaders detained on landing in Delhi
43,000 police and security personnel deployed across Delhi
Internet services suspended in central Delhi
Massive restrictions in place on metro and railway services
CJP called for a rally — that has not been authorized by police — to oppose ongoing revision of voter lists and demand resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar
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Indian opposition leaders detained amid police crackdown on protests
Videos released by opposition leaders show that several senior figures were detained in New Delhi on Saturday.
They include Arvind Kejriwal, leader of the Aam Aadmi Party and former chief minister of Delhi.
"It's official... we are living under an absolute dictatorship," Kejriwal wrote on X.
Mamata Banerjee, who lost power as West Bengal's chief minister earlier this year, was also detained.
Pinarayi Vijayan, a communist leader who headed the southern state of Kerala until May, was among those detained.
Rahul Gandhi, leader of India's opposition Congress party, called the crackdown an act of "cowardice" and described Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, right-wing, Hindu nationalist RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval as "the villains of this story" who were "slowly finding the space closing around them. We are closing that space."
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rahul Gandhi's sister and a Congress MP, wrote in a social media post: "India is not a democracy anymore. It is a dictatorship being run by Mr. Narendra Modi and Mr. Amit Shah."
Opposition parties and critics have warned that the electoral-roll revision exercise could strip millions of people of their voting rights and give an advantage to Prime Minister Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Indian authorities try to shut down a 'Cockroach' protest
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The Election Commission of India has rejected allegations of wrongdoing, saying the "special intensive revision" aims to remove duplicate and ineligible voters.
The protests echo the CJP's mass mobilization in July, which forced the then education minister to resign over an examination scandal.
This time, demonstrators are demanding the resignation of election chief Gyanesh Kumar.
Police crackdown amid outrage over India voter list revision
Tens of thousands of security personnel have been deployed and roads barricaded across New Delhi to prevent the latest Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) demonstration.
Police have detained thousands of protesters in a major crackdown. Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke and two other leaders were detained before disembarking from a flight in the capital.
Some protesters who turned back from Jantar Mantar, the designated protest site, have been waiting in different parts of central Delhi, determined to hold their ground.
The CJP has urged people who believe they or someone they know has been unlawfully detained to fill out an online form as soon as possible, saying it is collecting information to support affected volunteers and other individuals.
The protest targeted Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over voter list revisions that critics say favor Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling BJP.
'Cockroach' movement leaders arrested ahead of protests
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READ: Why are India's 'cockroaches' protesting again?
If you're joining us now, here's a helpful reminder about why India's youth are rising up this time.
Read DW's report here.
'We've been playing a game of cat and mouse with police,' protester tells DW
DW Hindi's Adarsh Sharma, who is on the ground in New Delhi, spoke to protesters as they faced a security crackdown.
He caught up with one protester who managed to avoid detention.
"We were running back and forth. When the police are moving forward, we go back. When they are withdrawing, we are moving forward," the protester told DW.
The protester described the heavy police presence as a "game of perception."
"Where you have 20 protesters and 10 media persons, there are 100 police personnel standing. It seems like a joke, what they are doing with taxpayers' money," the protester said.
Another protester, Jasmine, described how the morning unfolded for the demonstrators.
"We have been playing a game of cat and mouse with the police, trying to stop them from picking us up," she said.
"I don't think we have ever seen something like this happening. Protesting is a fundamental right… it's such a convoluted idea to take permission to protest… you are protesting against a government, will you ask permission from the same government? They are not going to give it," she said.
CJP's new protest leader asks supporters to keep up the fight
Ajinkya Shinde, who was handed the responsibility of leading the Cockroach Janta Party's protest following the detentions of its main leaders, has made his first statement — calling for a continued march to Jantar Mantar.
"We appeal to everyone to march towards Jantar Mantar! If Delhi Police tries to stop you, wherever they stop you will become your Jantar Mantar," he said in a video post made by the CJP on X.
Indian media houses say their journalists were briefly detained during Delhi protests
Indian media outlets, including Scroll and Newslaundry, reported that their journalists had been detained by police while covering the 'Cockroach' party protest. The journalists were later released.
Newslaundry reported that police seized its reporters’ phones, while other reports said journalists were physically assaulted.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom and defends journalists' rights worldwide, has called on Delhi Police to immediately release all detained journalists and media workers.
It has also urged police to return their equipment, investigate reports of physical abuse, and allow the press to cover the ongoing protests in New Delhi and the police response without interference.
In the 2026 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), India ranked 157th out of 180 countries, down six places from 2025. Press freedom groups have raised concerns about the use of criminal laws against journalists and the impact of such measures on independent journalism.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke's grandmother has died — reports
Detained Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke's grandmother is reported to have died on Saturday.
Indian media reports said that Dipke's paternal grandmother had been suffering from a prolonged illness and had been unwell in recent days. She died in her native village in Maharashtra, reports said.
News agency ANI, citing police sources, reported that the Delhi Police had informed Dipke of his grandmother's death. It was now up to the CJP leader to decide whether to continue his protest while under detention or travel back for the funeral rites.
Dipke was detained aboard his plane after it landed in New Delhi on Saturday morning, ahead of the protest. He was traveling from Mumbai.
IN PICTURES: Dissent and detention
CJP appoints interim protest leader to press on with rally
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has indicated that it will press on with its protest despite its leaders and supporters being detained.
CJP's National Organization In-Charge Ajinkya Shinde will lead the protest at Jantar Mantar until Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka remain in detention, the group said in a statement on X.
The CJP also shared a video of Dipke purportedly recorded on Friday night, anticipating a potential detention.
"If you are seeing this video, it means Ashutosh, Saurav and I have been arrested," Dipke says in the video.
"After us, Ajinkya will lead this movement," he says.
In a separate post, the CJP alleged that its three detained leaders had been taken to an undisclosed location, were being denied access to lawyers and had been cut off from "all contact with others."
Supreme Court bar association calls for intervention after lawyers are detained
The formal association of advocates at India's apex court called for urgent intervention by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant after several lawyers were detained by Delhi police.
This comes amid a reported crackdown on protesters attempting to reach the national capital, specifically central Delhi, to protest against India's chief election commissioner over alleged misconduct.
The arrested lawyers include those protesting outside the premises of the Supreme Court of India, as well as lawyers inside their chambers, legal news website, Bar and Bench, reported.
The Supreme Court Bar Association passed a resolution condemning the use of "excessive force against, and detention of, senior and young advocates, particularly women advocates, who were peacefully protesting in the Supreme Court area today.
The advocates' body expressed "grave concern" and requested the CJI to take action to ensure that the "whereabouts and safety of every detained advocate are ascertained."
How have India's opposition politicians reacted to the Delhi protest crackdown?
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has slammed the measures taken by Indian authorities to prevent the Cockroach Janta Party's protest from going ahead.
He called out a "war-like deployment" of security personnel and said that the suspension of the internet in a key part of Delhi was among the "most regressive" and "repressive" measures.
"A government confident in the fairness of its elections would welcome questions about them, whereas one that turns its capital into a fortress to avoid them only deepens the very suspicions it seeks to suppress. The government should provide answers, not lathis (sticks); expression, not repression," Tharoor wrote on X.
He also called for the release of the protesters who had been detained.
Tharoor said India's Gen Z "deserves better than an undeclared Emer-GenZ," in a play on words.
Leaders of the CJP on Friday likened the clampdown on their planned protest to a "state of emergency."
A state of emergency was declared in India by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the mid-70s. Emergency powers were invoked by the Congress leader for 21 months, during which civil liberties were suspended, much of the opposition was jailed and media was censored.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal also mounted an emergency-related attack against Modi's government.
"This is worse than the Emergency. It's official.. we are living under an absolute dictatorship ruled by Modi. Arresting cockroaches straight off their flight shows an unprecedented level of fear," he said, referring to the arrests of CJP's three main leaders.
Modi's party accuses opposition of attempts to 'incite tension'
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday accused opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal of "attempting to incite tensions" in the country.
"The Govt of India will deal strictly with the attempts you are making to incite tension, and BJP workers, remaining constantly among the people, will effectively thwart your designs," BJP President Nitin Nabin told news agencies on Saturday morning.
"Your repeated electoral defeats in various states and the resulting desperation suggest that, in some way, you do not wish to see this country move forward peacefully. However, I warn you today that the BJP and the patriotic citizens of this country will give you a fitting and stern response," he said.
Nabin suggested that "foreign forces" were behind the opposition leaders and that the protests were an attempt to "destabilize" India. BJP leaders have made similar claims before without offering proof.
"I issue a clear warning to you today: the foreign forces upon which you rely for your politics up for sale—and the alliances with such forces through which you seek to destabilize India—will never allow your nefarious intentions to succeed," he said.
More detentions reported as protesters attempt to push through security blockade
