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Protesters in India are demanding the country's election commissioner resign. They're unhappy that India's government is taking tens of millions of people off the voter rolls and threatening to remove more. NPR's Diaa Hadid reports.
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: Hundreds of protesters gathered near porticos of an upmarket shopping area, chanting against the commissioner and the prime minister.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #1: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in non-English language).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #1: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: On Sunday, in a video captured by the Indian daily The Hindu, police were carrying away protesters who'd gathered in the same place.
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HADID: A billboard overlooking the boulevard displayed a government order banning gatherings and even chanting.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Attention, please. Attention, please.
HADID: A loudspeaker blared the same warnings, citing an order from authorities that's been in place since a movement called the Cockroach Janta Party announced protests to demand the resignation of the election commissioner. The movement's name has its origins in a sarcastic meme. In the financial capital, Mumbai, on India's west coast, protests are also flaring. Police told a media outlet that 300 people were detained on Sunday. They include one man who told NPR that police took him away while he stood near a metro station. He requested anonymity, fearing further detention.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: We were not sloganeering. We didn't have any posters up. We were not carrying any political signs or anything like that.
HADID: Political analyst Bhanu Joshi says he's never seen the government clamp down like this.
BHANU JOSHI: At least in my living memory, I have not seen this extraordinary show of strength by the state.
HADID: The election commission says it's upheld the law and works with complete integrity. The institution is ostensibly independent. But critics of the government accuse the commissioner, Guanesh Kumar, of loyalty to the prime minister, Narendra Modi. Analysts argue that's why the government has tried to quash protests rather than address the claims made by critics - that the voter roll revision has disenfranchised citizens who can't afford the time or resources to appeal their deletion or that, at least in one state, Indian Muslims who typically vote against the Hindu nationalist party were disproportionately excluded.
Diaa Hadid, NPR News, New Delhi.
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