India’s ruling party has dismissed the protests in Delhi as the work of “anarchist forces” confined to one corner of the capital, and declared that they have failed. On the same day, an opposition delegation met President Droupadi Murmu and handed over a memorandum of four demands.
India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said that the protests in Delhi against the chief election commissioner do not represent the country, the Hindustan Times reported on Saturday, October 10.
What the BJP Said
“Jantar Mantar’s story is not India’s story,” said Sambit Patra, the party’s national spokesperson and a member of parliament.
“What is happening at Jantar Mantar, what you can see on TV and a few social media handles, is not India’s story. India is calm and going ahead under good governance.”
“We have been seeing that a few anarchist forces have been spreading anarchy in a corner of Delhi for the past few days. But today the anarchists have failed.”
He said there had been “an attempt to hold India, the national capital, captive”, with the aim of arson and violence, and declared that “loktantra” (democracy) had triumphed over “bheedtantra” (mob rule).
Another BJP leader, Nitin Nabin, warned that the government would deal “sternly” with “anarchists”, The Hindu reported.
The Opposition Goes to the President
Members of parliament from the opposition INDIA bloc, led by Rahul Gandhi, have tried to hold protests at different places in Delhi over the past three days.
On Saturday, a delegation met President Droupadi Murmu and submitted a memorandum listing four demands, the Hindustan Times reported.
The opposition is demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over what it calls “vote chori”, or vote theft.
Two Accounts of the Same Day
The two sides describe Saturday in very different terms.
- The BJP says the protest was a “flop show” that “completely collapsed”.
- Organisers say it could not begin as planned because police detained its leaders on arrival in Delhi and sealed off the protest site.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the government had turned the “mother of democracy” into a “muzzled democracy”, The Hindu reported. Shashi Tharoor said young Indians deserved better than an “undeclared Emer-GenZ”.
The Underlying Dispute
The row concerns a revision of India’s electoral rolls that has removed more than 130 million names.
The Election Commission and the government say the exercise has no political motive and is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible entries.
The opposition alleges that it has disproportionately removed voters likely to support opposition parties. The commission and the BJP deny this.
What Comes Next
Protest leaders have announced a new location for demonstrations, the Hindustan Times reported, and the movement says it will continue.
Image: Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of India’s president, in New Delhi (file photo, 2014). Photo by Ronakshah1990 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
