an \u201cassault on democracy\u201d<\/a> by overseeing an exercise that has deleted 130 million names from India\u2019s electoral roll.<\/p>\nKumar is accused of implementing the voter roll revision to help Modi\u2019s ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) entrench its power and to disenfranchise minority groups such as Muslims who are not traditionally part of the BJP\u2019s voter base.<\/p>\n
Those who attempted to take part in Saturday\u2019s demonstration were ruthlessly obstructed by a security crackdown, in which more than 25,000 police barricaded roads and the internet and public transport were shut down. More than 7,000 people were taken into police custody, many before they had even reached the protest site in the centre of the capital.<\/p>\n
Security personnel and police detain a journalist during a protest in Delhi on Sunday. Photograph: Adnan Abidi\/Reuters<\/p>\n
Despite the heavy-handed police response, it was still an unprecedented display of dissent against the powerful Modi government, which has been notoriously intolerant of any political opposition or criticism over its 12 years in power. Several senior opposition leaders were among those who tried to protest and were detained.<\/p>\n
By Sunday, the centre of Delhi still resembled a high-security fortress, with roads blocked by barricades and tens of thousands of police and paramilitary still deployed. Supreme court judges have ruled that the government must restore internet and reopen the capital\u2019s metro stations.<\/p>\n
Small groups of students and Cockroach supporters, many freshly released from police detention, again attempted to demonstrate in Delhi and were detained.<\/p>\n
Among those taken into custody for a second time was the student leader Neha Bora, whose repeated defiance in the face of the police crackdown has made her a figurehead of the movement.<\/p>\n
Neha Bora, centre, taking part in a march on Sunday. Photograph: Ritesh Shukla\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
In a video she posted on social media after she was picked up by Delhi police, Bora showed a detention bus with metal grilles over its windows and four small \u201cjail-like\u201d compartments secured with latches.<\/p>\n
She said six to eight protesters were crammed into each of the compartments, leaving little room to breathe, and that male protesters were subjected to verbal abuse and physical violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many troops, so much police presence, so much violence, abuses targeting mothers and sisters, caste-based slurs \u2013 why?\u201d Bora said in the video. \u201cSimply because you want to protect a thief, Gyanesh Kumar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marching alongside Bora was Surbi Yadav, 20, an undergraduate student at Delhi University, who said police detained her on Saturday morning. She accused police personnel of dragging her, injuring her arm and leg.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey treated us like animals. They pushed us into a bus and took us to a sports facility that had been turned into a detention centre,\u201d Yadav said, while showing scars on her arms. \u201cThe police kept misbehaving with us on the way and warned us against taking part in the protests.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yadav was released on Saturday evening. By Sunday afternoon, she was back on the streets with other students, holding a placard She vowed to return the following day and keep protesting until their demands were met.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not afraid any more. The government and the police will have to understand that,\u201d she said. \u201cThey can use as much force as they want to silence us, but it will be futile. In fact, it will only backfire. Every day, more people are turning against this government because of the way it is treating protesters.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a press conference on Sunday afternoon, the CJP leaders Das and Ranka condemned the police and government for turning Delhi into a \u201cwar-like situation\u201d and reiterated their message of defiance that \u201cthis fight is on\u201d. They added that it was no longer just about Kumar but also targeted at Modi and his home minister, Amit Shah.<\/p>\n
Protesters who tried to demonstrate in Delhi on Sunday were again detained by police deployed in the city. Photograph: Adnan Abidi\/Reuters<\/p>\n
\u201cThe state is at war with its own citizens,\u201d Das said. \u201cAn atmosphere of fear has been created in country, it\u2019s clearly being done to save one person. We want to ask Modi and Shah, why are you trying to save Gyanesh Kumar?\u201d<\/p>\n
There was no response from Modi to the accusations by the protesters. However, the BJP\u2019s spokesperson, Gaurav Bhatia, said earlier that the voter roll revision was a legitimate exercise to remove dead and illegal voters and refuted any political interference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are baseless allegations being levelled by an irresponsible opposition,\u201d Bhatia said. \u201cThe claim that democracy is being destroyed and that the constitution is being undermined has no basis and not an iota of evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
The weekend\u2019s protests had drawn support from the leader of India\u2019s opposition alliance, Rahul Gandhi, who has accused the Modi government of \u201cvote chauri\u201d or vote cheating through the voter roll revision. Gandhi was detained twice last week as opposition parties attempted to hold a protest in central Delhi calling for Kumar to resign.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Modi does not understand that the game is over,\u201d Gandhi said on Saturday. \u201cWe will ensure that Modi pays for the crimes he has committed against the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The leaders of India\u2019s Cockroach movement accused the Narendra Modi government of declaring \u201cwar with its own citizens\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-799195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}