Leaders of India’s Cockroach party jailed for violating ban on protest site
Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das will spend spend five days in prison for entering Delhi’s Jantar Mantar – a historic protest site that has been closed by authorities
TL;DR
- Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, leaders of the Cockroach Janata party (CJP) movement, were jailed for five days for protesting at Jantar Mantar.
- The protest violated a ban imposed after authorities decided to shut down Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site for over 30 years.
- The CJP protested the ban and alleged that the election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, is overseeing the disenfranchisement of Indian voters.
- The election commission denies favoring any party and states that wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol.
- The Indian government's response, including mass detentions, has been criticized by UN human rights commissioner and Amnesty.
- Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and a UK political delegation have also expressed concern over the government's actions.