<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CJP first protested against the education minister following the horrible mishandling of the NEET exam. The youth protesters in Delhi were met with heavy handed policing back then, this time the government came out even stronger against the protests. The July and August protests resulted in the resignation of the then Education Minister. The success of the earlier protests emboldened the youth movement that has formed under the banner of the \u201cCockroach Janata Party\u201d (Cockroach People Party).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the same vein, a new movement was started to protest the theft of votes, as a result of the Special Intensive Revision, a massive revision of the voter rolls conducted by the Election Commission across India. The latest chapter in this saga is the revision of voter rolls in New Delhi, right before the elections.
The youth, already angered by the corruption of the BJP, came out in force against it. Across North and Western India, youth protests have been breaking out against the BJP government at the centre, and the state (where the BJP is the ruling party). In the latest round of protests, the bourgeois parties, particularly the Congress party, have had a much larger role to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The campaign against the theft of votes had been spearheaded by the Congress, who had highlighted the systematic erasure of voters from voter lists on earlier elections. The BJP\u2019s unexpected sweeping victory in West Bengal has further highlighted the effectiveness of this strategy.
The BJP scraped through a victory in 2024, amidst growing anger and discontent from the youth and wide sections of the Indian peasantry. The fear of losing power influenced the BJP to embark on a novel new strategy of winning elections, revising the voter rolls to remove names from the ballot. This is a process which may seem sound on the surface, but as has been seen with the revision process in Bihar and West Bengal, has resulted in the erasure of hundreds of thousands of voters, with little to no reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The revision has disproportionately affected the poor, and Muslim minorities, both communities being opposed to the BJP. The share is particularly stark in the Northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where voter revisions resulted in the deletion of up to 18% of the list, and in New Delhi where a third of the voter lists have been purged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a rare instance, the CJP and the bourgeois opposition parties have joined hands to oppose the BJP, a union which was not present earlier. In their panic, the BJP imposed a near lockdown in Delhi, shutting down the internet in a 4 km radius around the protest site, and blocking trains and subways, all in a vain effort to prevent protesters from reaching the capital. In a brazen show of heavy handed policing, the entire leadership of the CJP was arrested from their plane before they even set foot in Delhi, while Dhruv Rathee, a famous Indian influencer was literally kidnapped from his Gurgaon home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As was seen in the earlier protests, every instance of police repression was met with more enthusiastic support from the youth who poured out into the streets. Their peaceful marches and gatherings were met with the violence of the Delhi police, and armed Hindutva thugs who were mobilized and given police protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government\u2019s efforts to stymie the protests have failed, and plans are now afoot to extend and strengthen these protests, which have resonated across the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a long time now, the complicity of the election commission has been a widely known open secret among the Indian public. The Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is a veteran IAS (Indian Administrative Services) officer who was central to several of the Modi Government\u2019s key political victories. He was involved in manipulating parliamentary processes to allow the passage of the abrogation of Article 370 without debate. He was at the centre of giving clearances for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya (on the site of the razed historic Babri mosque).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For his help to the Modi government, Gyanesh Kumar was rewarded with leading the Election Commission. As the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar was at the centre of perhaps the most impactful assault on Indian democracy till date, the Special intensive revision of the voter roll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The CJP first protested against the education minister following the horrible mishandling of the NEET exam. The youth protesters in Delhi were met with heavy handed policing back then, this time the government came out even stronger against the protests. The July and August protests resulted in the resignation of the then Education Minister. The success of the earlier protests emboldened the youth movement that has formed under the banner of the \u201cCockroach Janata Party\u201d (Cockroach People Party).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":76489,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"litci_post_political_author":"Mazdoor Inquilab","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[495],"tags":[6743,7088,7089,5074,3718,496,6688,7092,6942],"class_list":["post-76488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","tag-bjp-2","tag-cjp","tag-cockroach","tag-corruption","tag-election","tag-india-2","tag-party","tag-theft","tag-vote"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/CJP-mumbai.avif","fimg_url":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/CJP-mumbai.avif","categories_names":["India"],"author_info":{"name":"Carlos S.","pic":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fdf3a2076204dbf848fa7838fc9e2787f3317262207b35e333f31316e39fce9c?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"political_author":"Mazdoor Inquilab","tagline":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76488"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76491,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76488\/revisions\/76491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
It had long been suspected that Gyanesh Kumar was directly linked with many of the acts of electoral fraud committed by the government. The Election Commission, which is supposed to be a neutral body, had always acted in a way that was biased in favour of the BJP. Now, the truth has been exposed.
Following the expose by Indian Express,<\/em> it has become clear that the entire voter roll revision exercise is being conducted with a view to ensuring BJP victories across state elections. The Chief Election Commissioner cannot act on his own, the commission operates through consensus of all three members. Gyanesh Kumar rushed through the Special intensive revisions in Bihar, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi and Odisha, and in every instance the BJP has come out victorious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Protests against the Special Intensive Revisions (SIR) have occurred across several states at several times, including in West Bengal. However, these protests did not dissuade the government, The government always countered arguments against the patently unfair revision with the boogeyman of fake voters, illegal immigration, and by highlighting corruption of regional parties. Today, these arguments have been shouted down by the protests of the youth on the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe protests<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The CJP leadership had announced their plans for a protest at the Jantar Mantar protest site in New Delhi in the weeks prior to the event. As was the case earlier, leaders from youth wings of parties prepared to join in and add strength to the protests in New Delhi. At the same time, rallies were conducted in Mumbai which saw a large crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The protests in Mumbai were large, but lacked the spontaneous energy seen in the July protests. The government perhaps felt confident that this time around repression would work to snuff any possibility of the protests before it could begin. Once plans were announced, the government made its own preparations, deploying over 30,000 police personnel along with paramilitaries, and an unknown number of Hindutva goons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Internet was partially shut down within a four-kilometre radius of the protest zone, and severely slowed down over the rest of the capital. Several of New Delhi\u2019s metro lines were shut, trains were cancelled and roads were blocked. All of this, to prevent the gathering of peaceful protesters to the centre of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The New Delhi police is unlike the police forces of other states, as New Delhi is a Union territory, the police is directly controlled by the Home Ministry, held by the infamous Amit Shah. Modi\u2019s right-hand man, and the mastermind behind many of the electoral frauds responsible for the BJP\u2019s victories.
The government had been bruised by the protests once, and were in a vindictive mood. They did not want to take a chance for that success to be repeated this time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Delhi was undoubtedly the epicentre of the protests, smaller solidarity protests took place in other major cities. Protests spearheaded by leftist student unions took place in Calcutta, while protests also happened in Mumbai and Pune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Repression was most severe in Delhi, where the police detained protestors at will, committed violence on protestors. They did not think twice about assaulting women and children. They attacked journalists and activists, acting with an unseen brazenness and desperation. With the main protest site blocked off, the protests scattered into smaller gatherings over different parts of the city. The police attacked protesters wherever they found them, all in an effort to disperse the gatherings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the course of the day, leaders of bourgeois opposition parties joined with the protests, expressing solidarity with the protesters. The police did not shy away from detaining them, going so far as to detain former Chief ministers and Supreme Court Advocates.
The government came out with severe repression, but that did not deter protesters. Impromptu gatherings across the city continued to rally against the BJP government. As the protests gained momentum, repression did not discriminate, opposition leaders were placed under police custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the day ended and the full scale of repression became visible, the protests swore to continue their campaign into the next day. The scenes on the 11th resembled that of the 10th, with protesters expressing their anger against a government that would choose repression over dialogue. All this to defend the Chief Election Commissioner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government\u2019s actions do little to convince Indians against the opposition parties. No matter the efforts of pro-government propagandists in the news media, the public\u2019s opinion remained firmly against the government and its efforts to crush protests rather than engage.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDifferences between October and July protests <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
One feature that was quite visible in these protests, was the leading role played by the established parties. This time, the protests saw a much more prominent role, one could argue even a leading role played by mainstream bourgeois parties, and their youth wings. The Congress party in particular, mobilized its organization in support of the movement. However, the most active participants of the mobilizations remained the leftist students unions, this was particularly visible in West Bengal, where leftist student unions lead the rallies in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The issue of \u201cVote chori\u201d (vote theft) was first pitched by the Congress party and its allies in Bihar. The Congress and its allies protested in Delhi on the 6th and 7th October over the same. For their protests, the Congress leadership was briefly detained by the same Delhi police that now attacks protesters.
The July protests against the corruption in the NEET examination and paper leaks was conceived and executed primarily by the CJP in alliance with leftist student unions. This time around, the bourgeois parties, especially the Congress party had a leading role. In terms of agenda too, the CJP did not originate the demand for the Chief Election Commissioner\u2019s resignation, rather it was the Congress party and leaders of the INDI alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This time, as before, leftist student unions, particularly AISA (All India Students Association, affiliated with CPIML) and SFI (Students Federation of India affiliated with CPIM), played leading roles. They were in turn supported by youth wings of the NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) and the Congress party.
This feature however, should not take away from the significance of the protests. The mobilizations of the 10th of October are still ongoing as of writing this report, they show the outpouring of anger among the youth of India who are struggling under BJP led Hindutva rule. The repression itself reveals just how much the BJP has hollowed democratic functioning in India, harkening back to the days of emergency and anti-communist repression of the 70s.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCritical but unconditional support<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The protests are led by student and youth organizations, but it is not a students-only protest. The mobilizations have been joined by workers, farmers, intellectuals and professionals. The admixture represents anger that cuts across class lines. The only ones still in support of the BJP government are Hindutva supporters, and the capitalist class, for whom the BJP represents a government that is willing to suspend democracy for the sake of profits.
The present government\u2019s attacks on democracy work well with the agenda of the capitalist class who seek to intensify the exploitation of young workers, intensify the exploitation of the countryside, increase the exploitation of farmers, and make life of ordinary working Indians miserable. They also serve the agenda of the Hindutva movement, that seeks to convert India into a casteist apartheid state, where non-Hindu minorities would be second class citizens, and lower caste Indians would be confined to impoverishment. The voter rolls revisions reveal this agenda most clearly, as Muslims and the poor are overwhelmingly represented in deletions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Keeping this in mind, it must be admitted that the mobilizations and their goals remain far too limited. Leftist students\u2019 unions participate actively and enthusiastically, but their participation has not resulted in the transformation of the movement, nor the change of agenda beyond the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The agenda of the movement is still limited within the bourgeois democratic framework. It ignores the fact that bourgeois democracy is inherently limited, because this is the democracy of the ruling class. The system is not designed to improve the lives of the workers, let alone grant them any kind of real power, the system is designed to manage class antagonism in favour of the bourgeoisie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indian bourgeois democracy has existed for 79 years so far, and in that period at least 70 years have been spent under the hegemony of one of two central parties, the Congress for 54 years and the BJP for 17 years. The system is designed to favour such hegemonic politics. It may happen that in the future the BJP will be removed from power, but if nothing fundamentally changes, we will simply see a return to the politics of hegemony, perhaps once again under the Congress party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The net difference to the working class and peasantry will be zero. The energies of the youth would have once again been wasted for us to return back to where we started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mobilizations against SIR and the Chief Election Commission are important, because it shows the power of the organized youth. It shows that even the most stubborn governments can be made to bow under sustained mass pressure. It shows the bravery of the youth who face the repression of an unhinged reactionary police, it shows the potential for revolutionary struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The youth are on the path of struggle to preserve the limited bourgeois democracy that presently exists in India. This system is not a replacement for workers power, it is not an end in itself, but this concession is important to further the interests of the working class. With bourgeois democracy, the working class, youth and peasantry have a space to fight the capitalist class. Concessions however limited, are important and should be defended. However, we must do this with the knowledge of the limitations of bourgeois democracy, and particularly the limitations of the system in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the face of unabated repression by the Hindutva led government, we express our full support to the youth who are out on the streets across India. At the same time, we say that merely focussing on the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar is not enough, the movement must expand to demanding an overhaul of the system. This must be combined with a conscious fight against Hindutva, which at its core is a movement for caste hegemony.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe way forward<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
As of writing this report, the Congress has announced a mobilization opposed to the Modi government. Rahul Gandhi, the party\u2019s leader, and the leader of opposition, conducted a march to the Supreme Court to submit a petition for the Supreme Court\u2019s intervention seeking Gyanesh Kumar\u2019s resignation.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had criticized the Delhi Police\u2019s excesses in policing. A direction was passed against the arbitrary detentions, and the arbitrary closures of metro stations. This underlines the seriousness of the situation, when the usually pro-government Supreme Court feels compelled to act against the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A plan is in place for continuing the movement, without any clear agenda for escalation. Should the protests do not escalate their demands or tactics, it is likely that sustained repression and conciliatory tactics might exhaust the energies of the people. This may be the strategy of the government.
The only solution against such a strategy is a strategy of sustained escalation to invigorate the protests and youth. Whether or not the bourgeois opposition can do this remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"