‘You cannot denotify the resistance’: India’s Cockroach Janta Party defies crackdown to enter landmark Delhi protest site

New Delhi, October 13 — The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a youth-led opposition group in India, defied a police crackdown on Tuesday by entering Jantar Mantar, an iconic protest site in the capital, where key leaders were subsequently detained. Opposition parties and followers of the movement have been demonstrating in the streets, challenging the security crackdown and demanding the resignation of the head of India’s Election Commission, alleging it manipulated voter rolls to favor Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party.

The Election Commission of India denied any misconduct. Delhi Police announced on Monday that Jantar Mantar had been removed from the list of authorized protest locations, barricaded with yellow metal barriers and monitored by a large police presence. However, a video posted by CJP leader Abhijeet Dipke on Tuesday showed protesters scaling the barriers, marching into the cleared area, and holding the national flag, only to be chased away by the police and taken into custody.

Dipke's post on social media declared, "CJP sneaks inside to reclaim Jantar Mantar," and emphasized, "All of them have been detained by Delhi Police." The group's statement read, "You cannot denotify the resistance," tagging Modi. At a business conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, Modi referred to India as "the mother of democracy" without directly commenting on the protests.