Protests in Delhi over a revision of India’s electoral rolls have been met with detentions and restrictions on travel and internet access. Demonstrators want the revision scrapped and chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar removed; the changes have taken 130 million people off the register.
Ahead of a Cockroach Janta party protest on Saturday, authorities cancelled 245 trains to Delhi and closed 45 metro stations. Internet service was cut in the city centre, liquor shops shut and activists placed under house arrest. Barricades, road closures and paramilitary patrols marked the weekend in the capital.
The party’s founders were removed from an Air India flight after it landed in Delhi, while opposition leaders spent more than eight hours in police stations. Footage showed students and activists being beaten and taken from the streets; some journalists were also detained. On Monday, Delhi police withdrew Jantar Mantar’s designation as a protest site and recommended three alternatives.
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