0 comments
Widespread protests against the B.J.P have led to lockdowns and arrests, as Modi’s government threatens to upend voter rights.
Nahendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (B.J.P) have courted an unprecedented backlash for the past several months.
The Indian government is no stranger to public protest, but this most recent wave of demonstration stands apart for its cross-sectionality. In a nation with such a deeply entrenched caste-system, that these protests defy social and geographic boundaries is not to be underestimated.
A large portion of those marching against Modi’s government are Indian youth, who have been demanding reforms to the country’s education system. In July, this triggered the resignation of the Minister of Education. But more recently, the protest movement, known as the Cockroach Janta Party (C.J.P), turned its focus to the B.J.P’s decision to remove more than a hundred million Indians from voter rolls.
The government claims this is intended to eliminate discrepancies from the rolls, but it leaves the fate of India’s democratic system in the hands of the electoral commission, whose head was effectively chosen by Modi.
The revision is widely assumed to be a ploy designed to help Modi’s ruling party entrench its power and disenfranchise minority groups who are not traditionally a part of its voter base.
Yet it seems public backlash has, by this stage, traversed socio-political, economic and ethnic divides.
Activist and political scientist, Yogendra Yadav, has highlighted how these recent demonstrations mark a turning point for the country.
‘This [movement] is cross-sectional, in that it cuts across geographies. It cuts across social boundaries. And it specifically attracts the youth. It also, in many ways, cuts across political boundaries, in that the protesters are not necessarily from anti-B.J.P. backgrounds.’
‘What is different above all,’ Yadav told The New Yorker, ‘is the participation of youth unaffiliated with any organisation or any ideology.’
And this burgeoning movement continues to grow in the face of mounting arrests and lockdowns. On Wednesday, it was announced that the leaders of the C.J.P, Ahutosh Ranka and Saurav Das had been jailed for demonstrating on a historic protest site.
This comes after both Ranka and Das accused the Modi government of declaring a ‘war with its own citizens’ and vowed to continue protesting.
But the significance of these arrests extends beyond the fate of a single protest movement. Jantar Mantar, the historic site where Ranka and Das were detained, has long served as a focal point for public dissent in Delhi. Its closure, alongside the deployment of thousands of security personnel and the detention of demonstrators, raises an uncomfortable question about what remains of the right to protest nationwide.
Nonetheless, the demonstrations pose a significant worry for the B.J.P, as demonstrated by the government’s brutal crackdown on those involved.
