Crowds throng New Delhi and wave Indian flags amid escalating protests

By SHEIKH SAALIQ

NEW DELHI (AP) — Thousands of Indians thronged a bustling thoroughfare in the heart of the capital, waving the national flag and demanding the resignation of the country’s election chief, the latest show of public dissent against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

The protesters rallied in Connaught Place, one of New Delhi’s busiest commercial districts, responding to a call by the youth “Cockroach” movement, whose leader Abhijeet Dipke was detained by police ahead of the demonstration. Protesters spanning generations joined the rally, reflecting broad public anger and intensifying pressure on the country’s top election official.

Protests by the youth and opposition parties have intensified over an ongoing review of voter lists that has removed more than 130 million names since last year. Critics say the exercise is politically motivated, threatens to disenfranchise millions more, and has disproportionately affected minorities, particularly Muslims. They have demanded the resignation of election chief Gyanesh Kumar.

The Election Commission and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration deny the allegations and say the revision is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible entries.

Friday’s protest was part of a growing campaign that has put Modi’s government under pressure and comes a week after a police crackdown on protesters in New Delhi.

The demonstrators vastly outnumbered the security personnel lining the road, while columns of riot police stood watch.

Police had earlier asked people not to join the rally and offered to let a small group gather to wave the national flag and sing the national anthem. In anticipation of the protests, authorities also closed Central Park, a green space surrounded by Connaught Place’s white colonial-era buildings, on Friday and Saturday.

Modi has not publicly commented on the protests. Some of his party leaders have dismissed the demonstrators as “anarchists” and suggested, without offering evidence, that they are backed by foreign powers.

Police detained Dipke, the founder of the “Cockroach” movement, ahead of the demonstrations. He had urged supporters unable to travel to New Delhi to raise the flag and demonstrate in their own communities.

A live video posted on the movement’s Instagram account showed Dipke leaving a house and heading toward the street, where police officers intercepted him. After a brief exchange, officers hauled him into a police vehicle and drove away.

“Waving the tricolor (Indian flag) is not a crime,” he told reporters Thursday.

The “Cockroach” movement began as an online satirical campaign this summer after India’s chief justice compared unemployed young people to parasites. Many young Indians embraced the remark, adopting the cockroach as a symbol of resilience. It has since expanded into a nationwide protest movement of young people. Protests led by the group forced the resignation of Modi’s education minister in July, a rare setback for the prime minister, who has been in power for more than 12 years.

It remains unclear whether the protests will grow into a wider political movement. Modi’s government remains electorally strong, and anger over voter lists may not necessarily translate into support for the opposition, which has used the issue to criticize his Hindu nationalist government.

Many protesters, however, increasingly see the demonstrations as part of a broader struggle to safeguard India’s democratic institutions.

“India is descending into fascism, and that is my biggest concern,” said Nashid Khan, one of the protesters. Still, he said, the demonstrations “augur well for India’s future.”