{"id":2189453,"date":"2026-10-10T12:29:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T09:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2189453"},"modified":"2026-10-10T12:29:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T09:29:31","slug":"cjp-at-jantar-mantar-cockroach-group-says-leaders-detained-at-delhi-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2189453","title":{"rendered":"CJP at Jantar Mantar: ‘Cockroach’ group says leaders detained at Delhi protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/98ee\/live\/0a7efdf0-c4b7-11f1-bc2e-018d645d8d21.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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Watch: Why have hundreds of ‘cockroach’ protesters been detained in Delhi<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Hundreds of protesters have been detained in Delhi during the latest demonstration by the Gen-Z led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) calling for electoral reforms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The group said its founder Abhijeet Dipke – who began the movement in May after India’s Chief Justice likened some jobless young people to “cockroaches” – was detained with other leaders shortly after landing in Delhi. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Tens of thousands of security personnel were deployed and roads barricaded ahead of the demonstration, though the CJP insisted it would go ahead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Delhi Police has not commented on the detentions, but had refused permission for the protest to take place at Jantar Mantar, a landmark in the Indian capital.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The group – who are not registered as a political party in India – are seeking electoral reforms just months before crucial state elections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It has also demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of manipulating voters’ lists – which the Election Commission has denied.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Under Kumar’s leadership, India’s election commission has undertaken a mammoth exercise to update electoral rolls nationwide – it said this was a routine exercise to weed out dead, duplicate or ineligible voters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But in many states, the exercise has been shrouded in controversy, with tens of thousands of people alleging they have been wrongly removed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The CJP – and opposition parties – accuse Kumar of favouring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the way the electoral rolls are being updated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Election Commission and the BJP have denied this.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Before arriving in Delhi, the CJP’s founder Dipke said: “If you think you can stop us by threatening us with jail or trying to intimidate us with the fear of imprisonment, you are mistaken.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He and and two other leaders, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were detained on their flight from Mumbai on Saturday. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The group claimed the three men have been taken to an undisclosed location. Delhi Police have not commented.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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‘Cockroach’ leaders say they have been detained ahead of march<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ajinkya Shinde, the CJP’s new designated leader while the others are in detention, released a video telling protesters that “if Delhi Police tries to stop you, wherever they stop you will become your Jantar Mantar”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Student activist Neha Bora, who had also been detained by Delhi Police, urged demonstrators to “hold the line”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The large number of protesters expected to descend on Delhi were unable to get anywhere close to Jantar Mantar due to the heavy security presence and road blocks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Announcements could be heard across the city, asking people to co-operate with the police.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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One protester, Sabika Muzaffar, told the BBC she and her mother expected to be detained. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“On the way to the protest site, instead of reciting hymns and verses as we usually do, my mother and I were rote learning our lawyer’s number,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She said that showing up to protest was “her way of defending the country and its democracy”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A few minutes after Muzaffar spoke to the BBC she was taken away by police.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Several trains to and from major Delhi stations had been cancelled and dozens of metro stations were closed from Friday night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Buses packed with detained protesters were seen being driven away from the protest site.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"ReutersReuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Detained protesters were driven away from the site in police buses <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The CJP first emerged as a major protest movement during weeks of demonstrations over the summer demanding education reforms and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The group stemmed from a joke made by Dipke in response to a remark by India’s Chief Justice Surya Kant, who had likened jobless youngsters to “cockroaches”. He later said the comments were misinterpreted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Dipke, who previously worked with the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), had just completed a master’s degree at Boston University when he posted a question on X in May: “What if all cockroaches come together?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The post went viral, and the CJP was born. Momentum built around the movement which tapped into anger over over unemployment, exam paper leaks and government accountability.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In July, Dipke watched from the stage as the five-week-long protest ended in celebration after the resignation of India’s education minister.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c65yn7xvde7vo”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/98ee\/live\/0a7efdf0-c4b7-11f1-bc2e-018d645d8d21.jpg”] Watch: Why have hundreds of ‘cockroach’ protesters been detained in Delhi Hundreds of protesters have been detained in Delhi during the latest demonstration by the Gen-Z led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) calling for electoral reforms. The group said its founder Abhijeet Dipke – who began the movement in May after India’s Chief […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2189453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2189453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2189453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2189453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2189453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}