India police detain ‘Cockroach’ leader again to head off new protests

{"text":[[{"start":10.35,"text":"Indian police have taken the founder of the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party into custody for the second time in less than a week as his supporters sought to hold protests in the capital against the country’s elections chief. "}],[{"start":22.95,"text":"Movement founder Abhijeet Dipke was taken into preventive detention on Friday as he tried to reach Connaught Place, a central site in New Delhi where protesters planned to gather to wave national flags."}],[{"start":34.45,"text":"The CJP, which started as a satirical online movement in the spring, has turned into one of the biggest political challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "}],[{"start":43.900000000000006,"text":"It estimated that “dozens” of its followers and people from other youth organisations were detained on Friday in New Delhi as hundreds gathered to call for the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":59.2,"text":"“Why are you stopping me?” Dipke asked police personnel as they surrounded him outside the flat where he was staying on Friday. "}],[{"start":66.55,"text":"“If holding our own national flag in our own capital is treated as a crime, then put me in jail,” he added, wearing a T-shirt featuring Mahatma Gandhi, whose philosophy of non-violent protest he has cited as a model."}],[{"start":80.5,"text":"Delhi police arrested Dipke last Saturday when he arrived in the capital to take part in protests called by the Cockroach movement. He was freed by a court the next day. "}],[{"start":89.6,"text":"The “cockroaches”, as they call themselves, are demanding the halting of a controversial voter verification drive that has removed more than 130mn entries from India’s draft voter rolls, equivalent to 13 per cent of the registered electorate. "}],[{"start":103.69999999999999,"text":"Delhi police had appealed to citizens not to participate in Friday’s protest, with spokesperson Neha Yadav warning of “appropriate legal action” against those guilty of breaking “prohibitory orders”."}],[{"start":115.74999999999999,"text":"Earlier in the day, police served Dipke a notice telling him not to proceed with the protest. Demonstrators also gathered in the northern city of Patna."}],[{"start":124.94999999999999,"text":"Authorities have sought to block demonstrators from gathering near New Delhi’s political district by delisting the ancient open-air observatory of Jantar Mantar as an authorised protest site."}],[{"start":135.89999999999998,"text":"Two CJP leaders were arrested after they allegedly trespassed into Jantar Mantar on Tuesday. "}],[{"start":142.2,"text":"The government’s police deployments have so far prevented the “cockroaches” from gathering in the kind of numbers seen in July, when they forced Modi’s education minister to resign over an exam leak scandal."}],[{"start":154.79999999999998,"text":"The CJP and others claim the deletion of voters from the electoral roll may have helped Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party to win recent state elections, a suggestion the BJP denies. "}],[{"start":167.54999999999998,"text":"The electoral commission defended the voter roll revisions, saying deleted names were duplicates or those of people who had died or relocated. Government officials said the voter roll revision was needed to prevent voting by “infiltrators” — a pejorative term largely used to refer to Muslim immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. "}],[{"start":186.79999999999998,"text":"The prime minister has not commented on the allegations or the protests. “While the demand from the citizens is political, the response from Modi is police action,” said Sushant Singh, a lecturer in South Asian studies at Yale University."}],[{"start":207.35,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1792205410_5426.mp3"}