Delhi protest leaders Das and Ranka released from Tihar jail

Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, leaders of a youth-led protest collective, were released from Delhi’s Tihar jail hours after a magistrate ordered their release, BBC News reported on 21 October. They had spent a week in custody following their arrest over alleged trespass at Jantar Mantar.

The two men were detained after crossing barricades and climbing over a locked gate at the venue, according to the report. Jantar Mantar had recently been removed from the list of designated protest sites. Both men denied wrongdoing.

The report cited legal news website Bar and Bench for the release order issued by a special executive magistrate’s court in Delhi. Their release does not, by itself, establish the outcome of the underlying allegations.

Electoral-roll dispute behind the campaign

The Election Commission and the Bharatiya Janata Party have rejected allegations that changes to electoral rolls were designed to benefit the governing party. The commission says its Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, is intended to remove ineligible, deceased and duplicate entries.

Das and Ranka have called for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign. Their collective, alongside opposition parties and other critics, alleges that the revision favours Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP. The report does not establish partisan manipulation.

The report puts the number of names removed from voter lists through the exercise since last year at around 130 million. That figure is not a count of eligible voters proven to have been wrongly excluded. Critics warn that eligible citizens could lose their vote through the process, while the commission maintains that the exercise is aimed at cleaning the rolls.

From exam protests to electoral campaigning

Das and Ranka lead the Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, a Gen Z-led collective rather than a registered political party. The report traces its beginnings to an internet joke in May, following a remark by India’s top judge comparing unemployed young people to insects.

The collective initially mobilised thousands of young people against leaked examination papers before shifting its attention to the electoral system. Its latest confrontation with police took place at a venue that was no longer authorised for protests.