Controversy Over Arrest of Indian 'Cockroach Party' Leaders (+Photos)

Spokesperson for India's ruling party described the protesters as troublemakers and said their protest has failed.

The arrest of the leader of the Cockroach party on the plane in India became controversial.

According to Ambassador Arjan, the arrest of 3 leaders of the youth movement known as "Cockroach Janta Party" in India caused a lot of protest and tension. The arrests were due to protests against the Election Commission.

These arrests were made on the eve of a protest rally in New Delhi; A rally aimed at demanding the resignation of the Chief Election Commission of India due to the dispute over the revision of the voter list.

Abjit Deepke, the founder of the movement, along with two senior members of the party, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were arrested when their plane arrived in New Delhi, Reuters reported. However, the story was not limited to the arrest: the court ordered the release of these 3 people on Sunday (yesterday) and the protests continued despite the large presence of the security forces.

Janta Sesk Party, known by its acronym CJP, started its activity as a satirical and protest movement in cyberspace; But it gradually turned into a street movement centered on the youth, especially the Z generation.

According to a Reuters report, the turning point in the formation of this movement goes back to the reaction of Abjit Deepke, a 31-year-old political strategist, to comments about unemployed youth. The remarks were attributed to Chief Justice of India's Supreme Court, Surya Kant, who compared unemployed youth to "cockroaches". Deepke's protest response was widely reflected in social networks and the name of the cockroach became a symbol of this movement.

The choice of this name, contrary to its appearance, is part of the protest identity of the group. Activists of this movement used the term they considered derogatory to build a collective identity; This means that even if the society or those in power consider the unemployed youth unimportant, these youth can become an organized force.

The direct reason for the arrests was the presence of the leaders of the movement in New Delhi on the eve of a rally that was supposed to be held at the Jantar Mantar protest site. The protesters demanded the resignation of Election Commission of India chief Gayansh Kumar.

The main controversy is related to the extensive special revision of the voter list called "Intensive Special Revision". Critics say implementation of the scheme could result in the removal of eligible citizens from the electoral roll and benefit the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Ambassador Arjan wrote in his report that critics have expressed concern about the deletion of about 130 million names from the draft voter list. This figure does not prove the intentional exclusion of 130 million eligible voters; The Election Commission of India has stated that the cases under review include suspicious, duplicate or inconsistent entries. Also, people who were removed by mistake can apply for re-registration.

The main dispute is whether revising the lists is an administrative measure to clear electoral information or whether it can actually limit the access of some citizens to the right to vote.

How did the arrest of the leaders happen?

According to Al Jazeera's report, after the landing of the plane carrying the three leaders of Susukha Party (Deepke, Das and Ranka) from Mumbai to New Delhi, the police officers entered the plane and took these three people into custody.

In a video released from inside the plane, Deepke told the officers that she came to be arrested and that she was not afraid of them. In his statements before the gathering, he also emphasized that he will not back down from the protest and wants to defend democracy.

This scene became one of the prominent images of the story; Because the arrest took place inside the plane and before the leaders reached the gathering place. According to the protesters, this action was an attempt to prevent the formation of the gathering. However, in order to evaluate the legality of the detention, one should pay attention to the legal documents, the legal basis of the police action and the official explanations of the responsible authorities.

The arrest of the leaders of the Susekha party took place in a situation where the protests had started a few days ago and student groups and opposition parties of the government also participated in it.

Al Jazeera reported that police arrested more than 2,000 people in New Delhi on Saturday. Some other reports have provided different figures; Including the Hindu newspaper, which quoted police sources as saying about 2,500 detainees. Also, Ambassador Arjani informed about the arrest of around 600 people in Mumbai. These statistics should be read separately and according to the difference of sources and their time range.

To prevent the gathering, police and paramilitary forces were deployed in parts of the capital, main roads were blocked with barricades, a number of metro stations and markets were closed, and mobile internet services were limited in parts of the city.

These actions changed the scope of the story from a dispute over the electoral list to a broader discussion about the right to assembly, freedom of speech and how the government deals with the opposition.

Meanwhile, not all those arrested were necessarily members of the Susk Party. Al Jazeera reported the arrest of a number of opposition politicians, student activists, lawyers and journalists. Reuters also reported that the ambassador's reporter, Arjan, was detained for a short time and then released.

A day after their arrest, an executive court in New Delhi ordered the release of Deepke, Das and Ranka. According to Ratna Singh, the movement's legal officer, their release was conditional on an undertaking to "not disturb public order for one year".

Ambassador Arjan reported that at the time of publication, it was not clear exactly what restrictions this condition would impose and whether it might affect the ability of leaders to participate in protest rallies. Therefore, without seeing the text of the judicial decision, this condition cannot be considered as a definitive ban on political activity or participation in protests.

After the release, the user account of this movement on the X social network reacted to the arrest of the leaders by publishing the words "cockroaches never die"; A phrase that showed that the group intends to turn its name and symbol into a sign of resistance.

The Indian Express also wrote in a report that Das and Ranka claimed that their mobile phones were in the possession of the police during their detention. They expressed concern about the possibility of manipulating or simulating information on their phones.

The importance of this movement is not only related to recent protests. Reuters has reported that the group's protest activities in the past months led to the resignation of India's education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, on August 3, 1405; An event that was a rare political setback for the Narendra Modi government.

The protests initially spread over the leaking of medical entrance exam questions and the concern of about 2 million candidates about the health of the exam process. Then this movement put issues such as the state of public schools, youth unemployment and the performance of electoral institutions on the agenda.

The positions of the two sides were different about the nature of the protests and the actions of the police.

In the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), spokesperson Sambit Patra described the protesters as rioters and said their protest had failed. He also defended the performance of the government.

On the other hand, the head of the Congress party and the opposition of the government condemned the treatment of the protesters and considered the arrests as a sign of limiting the democratic space.

"Saurav Das", one of the leaders of the cockroach movement after the liberation, said that the situation has been created as if the government is at war with its citizens.

The Election Commission of India, however, denied the allegation of manipulation of the voter list and said that a review would be carried out to identify duplicates and ineligible persons. Electoral officials have also announced that people who were mistakenly removed from the list can apply for re-registration.