Delhi arrests founder of India's youth protest movement
· BehindLines newsroom
Delhi police detained Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), on Friday 16 October, shortly before a march he had called in the centre of the Indian capital. According to the Guardian, which updated its report on 17 October, he was subsequently formally arrested. Local media cited by the newspaper reported on Saturday that the arrest was intended to prevent a breach of public order. The youth movement wants Gyanesh Kumar, the country's chief election commissioner, to step down.
The BBC said police had now detained Dipke twice within a period of less than a week. The movement's two other leading figures, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were sentenced on Wednesday to five days in jail for demonstrating at a prohibited site near parliament. All three principal leaders were therefore once again in police hands. On Friday evening, the CJP reported that contact with its founder had been lost.
Flags facing a massive security presence
The park where the gathering was planned had been closed, and thousands of police and paramilitary personnel were deployed around Connaught Place, a central shopping district. Hundreds of protesters, about 2,000 according to the Guardian, nevertheless turned out carrying the Indian flag. The BBC observed detentions at nightfall and two injured people. Student leader Neha Bora was also taken away. Smaller gatherings took place in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Patna.
An insult turned into a street movement
The CJP emerged in May from an online campaign after the chief justice of the Supreme Court compared some unemployed young people to cockroaches. Dipke turned the insult into a rallying cry. In July, its demonstrations against leaked examination papers preceded the education minister's resignation, the BBC recalls.
The movement is now challenging a broad revision of the electoral rolls. Its supporters accuse the Election Commission of favouring the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party. The commission says it removes only voters who have died, are ineligible or are registered more than once. The BJP rejects the accusations, while one of its spokespeople instead accuses protesters of seeking disorder. Critics fear that legitimate voters could lose their right to vote: that issue, more than the arrests themselves, will determine the protest's significance.