India's opposition holds 'march for democracy' to top court over voter fraud

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - NEW DELHI — India’s main opposition parties, including the Indian National Congress, are holding a march to the Supreme Court to submit a memorandum demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged vote fraud.

This is the latest in a series of demonstrations in Delhi, with thousands of security forces deployed and roads barricaded in the capital.

Separately, the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders met Delhi Police to “demand” a date for a peaceful protest. It has threatened to announce a new ⁠protest call if a date is not given within 24 hours.

Thousands of people were detained in the city over the weekend, including CJP and left-wing student leaders, when police cracked down on protesters demanding Kumar’s resignation.

Opposition parties allege that under Kumar, India's voter rolls are being manipulated to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Both the Election Commission and the BJP have rejected the charge.

Chief Justice Surya Kant has refused to meet the opposition leaders, saying cases related to a revision of electoral rolls that removed 130 million people from voter lists are already pending before the top court.

The opposition lawmakers want to submit a memorandum to Chief Justice Surya Kant, but he has told reporters he declined the meeting citing "certain reasons".

He did not provide the reasons, but media reports citing the letter have said that he pointed out that some of the issues the opposition wanted to raise with him were also pending before the court.

"Every Indian citizen has the right to approach the court, and we will hear their concerns and grant whatever is due under the law," he told reporters.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, meanwhile, has called "all opposition parties, civil society groups [and] all those who believe in democracy" to join Monday's march.

In a press conference on Monday, he shared a letter that he and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had written to the Chief Justice, laying out their concerns with Kumar's alleged conduct and with the contentious electoral roll revision.

He said that Kant had asked them to file a petition, which they would do at the end of their march.

Authorities in Delhi have announced heavy restrictions on traffic and on entry and exit at some key metro stations. There is also heavy security deployment in central Delhi and along the route of the march.

Over the past week, top opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, have been briefly detained several times while leading protests in central Delhi.

On Sunday, the CJP, which is not a registered political party, said it would continue protesting until Kumar stepped down.

The CJP, which successfully led a protest over the summer that culminated in India's federal education minister's resignation, had called for a march on Saturday to Jantar Mantar - the best-known protest site in Delhi where the last set of sit-in demonstrations had also happened.

But authorities in Delhi imposed overarching restrictions that made it almost impossible for protesters to travel and reach Jantar Mantar — trains were cancelled, dozens of metro stations were shut down and tens of thousands of police and paramilitary personnel were on the roads to detain protesters.

The CJP leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were dramatically detained from a plane as they landed in Delhi to join the protest.

They were only released a day later — while Dipke has returned home to attend his grandmother's funeral, Das and Ranka held a press conference where they said the protests would continue. Both leaders, however, did not join the protests on Sunday but have said they will seek a new protest date from the police.

Over the weekend, the police detained and released thousands of people, including several journalists. Some videos and photos from the protest show police dragging people, including women, by force and pushing them into buses.

The BBC also captured visuals of a policeman slapping a detained protester inside a bus. The Delhi Police did not respond to questions about the use of violence against protesters.

In a statement, Reporters Without Borders condemned the detention of at least 16 Indian journalists.

"Covering events of public interest is not a crime. It is their job. The police's actions against the press are unacceptable," it said.

Congress leader Gandhi said that young Indians who had come to peacefully protest with "love in their hearts, not hatred or anger" had been beaten up.

BJP President Nitin Nabin accused opposition parties and the CJP of trying to destabilise India "at the behest of foreign forces" without elaborating on who the forces were.