Protests in Delhi following prolonged public outrage.

Bangla Press Desk: Long-simmering public anger has created a volatile situation in India. The latest manifestations of this discontent include demands for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the scrapping of a controversial voter list revision process.
This process resulted in the names of 130 million people being removed from the electoral rolls. Protests have been taking place daily in Delhi for the past week, met with a harsh crackdown on dissenters.
These details emerged in a report by *The Guardian* on Tuesday. The report stated that Delhi has been effectively under lockdown since last Friday; the city transformed into a militarized zone due to barricades, road closures, and patrols by paramilitary forces.
Ahead of the protest led by the 'Cockroach Janata Party' on Saturday, authorities imposed severe restrictions: 245 trains bound for Delhi were cancelled, 45 metro stations were shut down, internet services in the city center were suspended, and many activists were placed under house arrest.
On Saturday, the founders of the 'Cockroach Party' were removed from an Air India flight immediately after landing at Delhi airport. Opposition leaders were detained at various police stations for over eight hours. Video footage showed students and activists being manhandled, beaten, and dragged away from the streets.
Even journalists were subjected to detention. Police detained a Supreme Court lawyer who had arrived to provide legal assistance to the detainees, tearing his shirt in the process.
The crackdown extended to Mumbai, where police detained Tushar Gandhi—the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi—to prevent him from participating in a local protest. On Monday, Delhi police revoked permission for Jantar Mantar as the designated protest site and recommended three alternative locations instead.
Political activist Yogendra Yadav was detained after participating in Saturday's protest. Regarding the crackdown, he remarked, "I have been active in public life and politics for four decades, yet I have never witnessed such preparations for a protest before. It was an extraordinary event that defied all imagination." He described it as "state-induced panic." Nevertheless, small groups are staging spontaneous protests in various parts of Delhi, defying the tight security cordon.
A report by the British media outlet notes that crackdowns on protests are nothing new; however, the scale of the crackdown in the capital this time is particularly striking. The central government's crackdown in Indian-administered Kashmir was, of course, far more severe—especially in 2019, when sweeping restrictions were imposed following the abrogation of Article 370.
The severity of these state measures highlights the high political risk facing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, as it confronts growing resistance to an intensive revision process of the voter list, alongside questions regarding the credibility of the electoral process.
BP/TD