Heavy police barricades line the streets around Connaught Place, the colonial-era square near Jantar Mantar, on Saturday morning as police have begun detaining small groups of protesters arriving for planned demonstrations.
asserted
police → line → demonstrations
They are here in support of the influential Gen-Z movement and Cockroach Janta Party, which have called for the resignation of India’s election chief, amid a bitter dispute over who gets to vote in the world’s most populous democracy.
asserted
who → call → democracy
Protesters are demanding sweeping reforms and a rollback of a controversial voter revision exercise which has struck 130 million names from the voter list.
asserted
which → demand → list
For now, an eerie silence hangs over parts of central New Delhi.
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silence → hang → Delhi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has gone to lengths to turn the city into a fortress, deploying nearly 30,000 personnel onto the streets.
Police have also detained the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, Abhijeet Dipke.
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Police → go → Party
Indian TV channels reported early on Saturday that officers met Dipke at the New Delhi airport after he arrived from the financial capital Mumbai and asked him to call off the protest as authorities had banned it.
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authorities → report → it
CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were also detained from their flight upon landing, the movement said in a statement.
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movement → detain → statement
On Friday, the government extraordinarily cancelled all trains to New Delhi; locked down more than 50 metro stations; imposed an internet shutdown; and sent personnel to thousands of students in local communities to warn them against participation in the protest.
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government → cancel → protest
Several students en route to New Delhi from different states of India were dragged out of trains and buses and detained by the police.
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students → drag → police
Many have been placed under house arrest in cities hundreds of kilometres away from New Delhi.
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Many → place → Delhi
The Cockroach movement says thousands have been ed across India as Modi’s government intensifies its crackdown.
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government → say → crackdown
Yet undeterred protesters have pledged to keep returning to the streets.
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protesters → pledge → streets
‘Made EMERGENCY official’
Current restrictions in the Indian capital and the nationwide crackdown on protesters have evoked memories of the 1975 Emergency, when then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi suspended civil liberties, censored the press and jailed political opponents.
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Gandhi → make → opponents
“Narendra Modi just made EMERGENCY official,” Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach movement, wrote in a post on X.
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Dipke → make → X.
“This intimidation is not going to work, Modi.
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intimidation → go → ?
Neha Bora, the firebrand Gen-Z protest leader and the national president of the left student body All India Students’ Association, equated the Modi government with British colonialist forces that unsuccessfully clamped down on India’s independence movement.
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that → equate → movement
She called on the masses to join the protest.
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She → call → protest
On Saturday morning, young people were trying to respond to her call despite the police restrictions in place.
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people → try → place
Santosh Kumar, 29, a street sweeper in the outer circle of Connaught Place, told Al Jazeera he feels frustrated seeing teenagers detained at police barricades.
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teenagers → tell → barricades
“How can you stop these kids?
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you → stop → kids
They are ing 10; 50 more are coming.
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50 → e → 10
Modi, the dictator’s time is up: He will not even stay until 2029 (the time of the next elections).
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He → stay → elections
“This is the time we turn Delhi into Nepal and Bangladesh – learn from them and take back our country,” he says, referring to youth-led movements in those countries.
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he → turn → countries
Sameer Irshad, 28, an engineer from Gurugram, approached the barricades near Connaught Place while pushing his 57-year-old mother Sheeba Abdi in a wheelchair.
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Irshad → approach → wheelchair
Abdi told us: “This sort of crackdown, where we cannot peacefully express our dissent, is unseen in Delhi.
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we → tell → Delhi
Why has government turned this place into a fortress?
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government → turn → fortress
Under house arrest
Last month, India was shaken by revelations of divisions within the supposedly autonomous body that is in charge of conducting elections, over controversial policies that critics say have disenfranchised tens of millions of people.
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critics → shake → people
India’s Election Commission chief, Gyanesh Kumar, was accused of overruling concerns raised by the two other election commissioners about the integrity of ongoing changes in the voter database, an investigation by The Indian Express reported.
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investigation → accuse → Express
India is among the few countries to have taken an active approach to enrolling every last voter.
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India → take → voter
Critics say the ongoing revision of the voter list flips the foundational principle of Indian democracy: Demanding that citizens prove their voting rights, and disproportionately targeting economically weaker sections, minorities and other vulnerable groups in Indian society.
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citizens → say → society
Arif, a 24-year-old district coordinator for the Students’ Federation of India, another left-wing student organisation to have joined the protest call, was locked in his home in Saharanpur, nearly 200km (125 miles) from New Delhi, on Thursday.
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Arif → join → Thursday
“Several police officials started beating my door out of nowhere late at night, asking my parents for details of my whereabouts,” Arif, who did not want to give his full name, told Al Jazeera from his home in Saharanpur, where he is currently ed under the police’s watch around the clock.
asserted
he → beat → clock
“They just want to stop me from going to Delhi for protest.
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They → want → protest
They are threatening to book me under criminal cases and destroy my future,” he said, adding that this is the first time he has been subject to such detention.
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he → threaten → detention
“I really wanted to be in Delhi, to fight and reclaim our democracy.
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I → want → democracy
The time for Modi is over,” he said.
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he → say → Modi
Modi ‘at his weakest’
This week, Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BNP) celebrated his 25 years in office, starting with his years as chief minister of the western state of Gujarat – where he oversaw the infamous 2002 Muslim pogrom – and later as India’s prime minister since 2014.
But
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he → celebrate → 2014
has never looked weaker in power than now, analysts and Indian political observers argue.
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analysts → look → power
In July, the Cockroach-led protests choked key New Delhi streets and forced out Modi’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan.
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protests → lead → minister
This time, Modi has taken more extreme measures to prevent protesters from gaining a foothold in central New Delhi, “because he wishes to retain the aura and image of a leader who never yields to public pressure, someone who is invincible”, said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, an author and biographer of Modi.
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Mukhopadhyay → take → Modi
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
