India’s Supreme Court waded deeper into a widening political battle over the country’s electoral system as it sought responses from the Election Commission and its three members over allegations of widespread voter deletions. It also ordered authorities to preserve CCTV footage and other evidence from recent protests, as it examines allegations of police brutality, custodial violence and mass detentions. The court agreed to hear challenges to the removal of New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site.
The hearing comes as protesters continue to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over deletion of 130 million names from the draft elector lists. Opposition lawmakers, led by Rahul Gandhi of the Indian National Congress, and the Cockroach Janta Party, a youth pressure group, have held multiple demonstrations over the past two weeks. The authorities responded by locking down the national capital over the weekend, and resorted to mass detentions.
The police denied violating court orders allowing free movement, and said internet facilities remained unhindered except cellular internet that was suspended over law-and-order concerns. CJP’s Abhijeet Dipke has called for demonstrations in Delhi on Oct. 16, after two of the youth-led movement’s leaders, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were arrested and sent to jail for five days Wednesday for trespassing at Jantar Mantar. The two were seen waving the Indian tricolor and climbing over barricades to enter the site.
Amnesty International India, the Indian arm of the global human rights organization, called for the immediate release of CJP leaders. In a statement on Wednesday, the group raised concerns over the removal of Jantar Mantar as an authorized protest venue, saying the move and the arrests threatened the right to peaceful assembly and dissent. The unrest has been sparked by a late-September investigation by the Indian Express alleging that Kumar disregarded objections raised by the other two election commissioners over the so-called Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
Source: Bloomberg Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing