India’s ‘Cockroach’ protest movement leaders freed from detention

Leaders of the Cockroach Janata Party were released Sunday after being detained in New Delhi as they prepared to lead protests against a controversial revision of voter lists. Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were freed on condition that they commit 'no breach of peace for one year,' according to the movement’s legal director. The condition’s meaning was unclear and it wasn’t known whether it would restrict their participation in further protests. The trio had been stopped by police after their flight from Mumbai landed in New Delhi, ahead of a demonstration in the capital. Authorities have launched a wide security crackdown, detaining more than 2,000 protesters; train services to Delhi were halted, metro stations were shut, and mobile internet service was suspended in parts of the city. Most detainees were released late Saturday. After his release, Dipke criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi, writing on X that Modi is ‘an embarrassment to India’ and that the country has never seen a bigger coward and bully. The protests center on a voter-list revision that critics say is politically motivated; more than 130 million names have been removed since last summer. Protesters are calling for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The government and the Election Commission deny manipulation. The Cockroach movement began as an online satirical campaign after the chief justice likened unemployed youths to parasites and has since evolved into a broader youth-driven protest.