India election chief faces march to top court over voter purge

Thousands marched to the Supreme Court in New Delhi on Monday to demand that the India election chief quit over a disputed revision of voter rolls.

Opposition MPs and their backers wanted to deliver a petition to the chief justice. It urged Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to step down. Meanwhile, crowds chanted slogans and waved placards as they moved through the heavily guarded capital.

“The government has to listen to the voice of the people,” said Abhay Aryan, a 28-year-old demonstrator. He added that the size of the crowd spoke for itself.

Why the India election chief faces protests

The revision has removed more than 130 million names from voter lists, according to media reports. Critics say the exercise hit minorities hardest, particularly Muslims, and could favour the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, the Election Commission of India rejects any claim of wrongdoing. The body, which oversees voting for the world’s largest population, says the purge only targets duplicate, dead and fake entries. The ruling party also denies any manipulation.

Opposition parties have joined forces with the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party, whose leaders have millions of followers on social media. Together, they want the revision halted and the India election chief removed from office.

Another marcher, Mehvaish, said years of what he called injustice under Modi had become too much to bear. Losing the vote, he argued, would leave people with nothing at all.

India election chief shielded by heavy security

Security forces flooded central Delhi in their thousands for the third straight day. They put up hundreds of yellow metal barricades on roads into the city centre and closed six metro stations.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi told a news conference that police were blocking people from reaching Delhi. He said officers now stood “everywhere” in the capital.

Gandhi also accused Modi of protecting the India election chief. For Gandhi, the movement is a battle for the constitution. “We will not back down,” he said.

Meanwhile, Delhi police announced that Jantar Mantar, a long-standing protest site, would no longer serve as a designated venue for rallies. Instead, they named three replacement sites.

Earlier this year, the movement held a weeks-long sit-in at Jantar Mantar. In July, that sit-in brought down Modi’s education minister.

Detentions spark wider anger

Police detained thousands of protesters over a chaotic weekend, including organisers, local media reported. Most of them, among them three top leaders of the movement, have since gone free.

Opposition figures accuse the authorities of using mass detentions to crush dissent. John Brittas, a parliamentarian from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said police “manhandled, dragged, assaulted” him during Sunday’s protests.

“It is an assault on democratic freedoms and the rule of law,” Brittas said. Police, for their part, did not answer questions about the detentions at a news conference on Sunday.

Several journalists also said police held them even though they wore press cards. Reporters Without Borders said officers detained at least 16 journalists over the weekend and called the action “unacceptable.”

Nitin Katiyar, who reports for a digital outlet, said a police official hit him in the eye. Nobody has yet verified his account independently.

A growing challenge for Modi

Over Modi’s decade-plus in office, rights groups and critics argue, democratic freedoms in India have steadily weakened. They point to pressure on journalists, civil society and political rivals, charges the government rejects.

So far, Modi has not commented publicly on the protests. Some leaders of his party, though, have dismissed the activists as “anarchists.”

Still, the unrest has become a major political test for the prime minister. It has united opposition parties, student groups and activists, and the movement’s leaders have vowed to keep protesting until the India election chief steps down.