Red Alert: Delhi is militarised as millions mobilise against mass disenfranchisement

Since 2025, more than 130 million names have been struck from India’s draft electoral rolls — an unprecedented project of disenfranchisement in the world’s largest democracy. Evidence suggests that it handed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) an electoral advantage in several constituencies in recent state elections by removing voters from marginalised communities, including Muslim and Dalit voters.

Citizens from across the country are now in revolt. Today, 10 October, students, trade unionists and farmers are gathering in Delhi to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Their target is the “Special Intensive Revision” that struck those names from the rolls.

The government has reason to fear these students. The protest has been called by the Cockroach Janta Party, the youth movement whose first wave of protests in July ended with the resignation of the Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan.

In its second wave, the anger has spread far beyond student organisations — engulfing the country in a fight to defend the right to vote. Opposition parties from across the country, from the Indian National Congress to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), have stood on the front lines of this struggle. Hundreds of Members of Parliament marched in the streets to demand accountability, only to meet the same police crackdown. The Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, was detained.

The Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls, launched in 2025 and presented as a clean-up of bad data, has become a purge of voters unwanted by the BJP. United Nations Special Rapporteurs have formally raised their concern with the Indian government over the removal of millions of names — and its impact on minorities.

Leaked documents now reveal that two of the three Election Commissioners objected on the record at least 14 times to Mr Kumar’s decisions regarding the revision of the rolls, warning that the move was illegal and unconstitutional, but were overridden. Mr Kumar was handpicked and appointed by a committee on which the government holds two of three votes.

The protesters’ demand is clear: the immediate resignation of Gyanesh Kumar and a rollback of the Special Intensive Revision.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has answered the call to protest with a siege of the capital.

Some 26,000 armed paramilitary personnel and 20,000 police have been deployed to Delhi. Buses and trains bound for the city have been searched, and students suspected of travelling to the protest have been pre-emptively detained. Metro stations have been closed. Trains into Delhi have been cancelled. An internet shutdown has been announced.

On 2 October, the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth, protesters took to the streets of Delhi and Mumbai in non-violent disobedience — and were met with paramilitary cordons and anti-riot vehicles. Roads to Jantar Mantar, Delhi’s designated protest site, were barricaded.

Mass detentions followed, and again the next day. Students were forced onto buses, and many say they were beaten and harassed. On 6 October, police turned on students and opposition leaders once more.

Each time, the protesters have returned.

The world is watching. From on the ground in Delhi, the Progressive International Observatory calls on progressive forces around the world to demand that the Government of India withdraw its forces from Delhi, conduct an independent investigation into the Election Commission of India, and roll back the revision.