Thousands of people led by India's main opposition figures marched through central Delhi on Monday to the Supreme Court, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a nationwide overhaul of voter lists. Police barricades kept most protesters about 600 metres from the court, but lawyers submitted a petition on behalf of Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader, and by evening Gandhi himself had reached the court gates.
The "March for Democracy" followed a weekend of unrest. A protest called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a youth-led pressure group that is not a registered political party, ended with thousands detained as authorities shut metro stations, cancelled trains and deployed tens of thousands of police and paramilitary personnel. Reporters Without Borders said at least 16 journalists were among those held. Footage showed people being dragged into buses, and the BBC filmed an officer slapping a detainee. Delhi Police did not respond to questions about the use of force. John Brittas, an MP from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said he was "manhandled, dragged, assaulted".
At the centre of the dispute is the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which media reports say has removed more than 130 million names since last year. Opposition parties and civil society groups allege it was designed to help Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and that Muslims and other minorities have been disproportionately affected. The Election Commission denies favouring any party, says the exercise removed duplicate, deceased and fraudulent entries, and notes that wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol. The BJP accuses its rivals of undermining democracy; its president, Nitin Nabin, claimed the protests were meant to destabilise India "at the behest of foreign forces", without naming any.
Gandhi has accused the government of "vote chori" (vote theft), and said the youth "won't stop" until Kumar is removed. Opposition MP Mahua Moitra said more than 10,000 voters had been wrongly removed in her West Bengal constituency, and criticised the Supreme Court for having validated the process. Chief Justice Surya Kant said the matter was already before the court and therefore sub judice, but assured that any such petition would be heard at the earliest opportunity.
The confrontation continued on Tuesday. According to The Hindu, the Supreme Court registry had flagged more than 10 defects in the opposition petition, which opposition leaders said would be corrected. Police detained CJP leaders Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka and Ajinkya Shinde as they tried to enter Jantar Mantar, Delhi's best-known protest site, which the authorities have now removed from the list of permitted protest locations. Police registered two FIRs (first information reports, the formal start of a criminal case) over the march, alleging unauthorised protest and a barricade breach, and sought to extend the deployment of 273 paramilitary companies until October 20.
The protests are described as one of the most significant political challenges of Modi's third term. They raise questions about the credibility of India's election machinery and about how the world's largest democracy handles street dissent.