In brief
Leaders of India’s Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) scaled the barricaded historic Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Police detained the figures a few hours after the raid, triggering a surge of public dissent. The move follows a Home Ministry decision to strip Jantar Mantar of its status as a protest venue, leaving demonstrators with alternative sites and heavy security. Across Delhi, protests tie the voter‑roll revision debate to broader concerns over political accountability and youth activism.
In a dramatic move, leaders of India’s Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) entered the historically‑fierce protest site of Jantar Mantar on Tuesday morning, only to be seized by Delhi police within hours.
Following a surge of online videos from founder Abhijeet Dipke showing Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das scaling barricades and chanting for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar amid the country’s contentious voter‑roll revision, the police stormed the site.
“You cannot denotify the resistance,” Dipke wrote on X, while Ranka streamed his own live video from a police bus, declaring that the movement would not back down.
The raid follows a Home Ministry decision to remove Jantar Mantar as an official protest venue, redirecting demonstrators to three alternative sites that still face heavy lockdowns, with metro lines suspended and police deployment in the thousands.
Earlier this week the CJP called for a mass march from Connaught Place to the Supreme Court, coinciding with a petition by Congress that challenges the voter‑roll exercise which has purged millions of names and may disenfranchise large swaths of the electorate.
The protests are part of a growing wave of dissent that began with student rallies over exam irregularities and has now turned into a broader campaign against perceived government overreach, with youth freedom and accountability echoing in every chant.
Stay tuned to PulseWire for live updates, a crowdsourced fact‑checking feed, and an interactive map of protests across Delhi.
