Police detain leaders of India’s ‘cockroach’ movement at New Delhi protest

Cockroach Janta Party volunteers detained after entering a popular protest site authorities had declared off-limits.Police in the Indian capital have detained leaders of the country’s youth-led “cockroach” movement after they jumped barricades to enter a popular protest site in New Delhi while calling for the resignation of the country’s chief election commissioner (CEC) over voter list revisions.Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde were among about 20 volunteers who “sneaked” into Jantar Mantar to “reclaim” the popular protest site and were detained on Tuesday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Russia’s parliamentary election: Who’s on the ballot, and why it matterslist 2 of 3US cites India on voter IDs, but are elections under Modi clean?list 3 of 3Zambia’s Hichilema begins second term after disputed electionend of listCJP supporters and opposition parties have held protests nearly every day this month to demand CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s ⁠resignation over the revisions, which critics say favour Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).Thousands joined a protest march on Monday, after a clampdown ‌foiled CJP plans for a weekend demonstration. Earlier, police detained thousands of protesters, including CJP leaders, over the weekend.The Delhi Police announced on Monday that the Jantar Mantar open-air astronomical observatory was no longer designated an official protest site and that three new venues had been identified for demonstrations.However, CJP leaders and supporters went ahead with their protest plan at the Jantar Mantar and were taken into custody.“You cannot denotify the resistance,” CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said ⁠on X after their detention.A video posted to his account ⁠shows about a dozen volunteers jumping a gate and barricades to reach the site, where they waved the Indian flag and chanted slogans as police arrived and detained them.