Detention before the rally

Delhi police detained Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the youth-led cockroach movement, on Friday, 16 October, shortly before a planned rally in central New Delhi. Live footage broadcast by NDTV showed officers stopping him on the street outside his house and hauling him into a police car after a brief argument. Earlier that day police had visited his home and told him the march was banned because it would pass through Connaught Place, a busy shopping district. Student activist Neha Bora, president of the left-wing student group AISA, was also detained as she tried to reach Connaught Place with dozens of supporters, local media reported. Her supporters said she had been forced into a van and that her whereabouts were unknown.

As he was taken away, Dipke asked the officers how they could detain him when he had broken no law.

“I have not broken any law right now... how can you detain me?”

Dispute over voter rolls

The protests target a revision of India's voter rolls that critics say benefits Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party. Some reports put the number of names removed in the revision at more than 130 million, while other media reports cited by Deutsche Welle say more than 133 million, mostly members of minorities and especially Muslims. The government says the review removes duplicate entries and people who are not entitled to vote. The Election Commission denies any political bias and says individuals wrongly removed can re-enrol. Protesters, opposition groups and student bodies want Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign.

Earlier arrests and police deployment

Friday's detention was the second time in less than a week that Dipke had been taken into custody. On Tuesday, 13 October, police detained two CJP leaders, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, after they tried to enter a fenced central site carrying Indian flags. Authorities closed a central park for two days, citing administrative reasons, and more than 25,000 police and paramilitary personnel were mobilised in the capital on Friday, according to Deutsche Welle. Security forces set up yellow metal barricades at major junctions. Police warned that breaking the orders would bring legal action, but allowed selected people to gather at an approved location. Senior police officer Sachin Sharma told the news agency ANI that Dipke had been served a notice asking him to obey the law.

Origins of the movement

The cockroach movement began in May as a satirical online reaction to remarks by Supreme Court Chief Justice Surya Kant, who according to media reports had compared young government critics to cockroaches and parasites. It later grew into a national protest movement led largely by young people. In July, police cracked down hard on tens of thousands of protesters in New Delhi who were demanding action on problems in the education system. Protests led by the group forced the resignation of Modi's education minister that month. Modi has not publicly commented on the protests, while some leaders in his party have called the demonstrators anarchists and suggested they receive support from foreign powers.