India voter purge

THE purge of millions of voters from India’s electoral rolls has sparked widespread demonstrations , spearheaded by young protesters calling for justice. The Cockroach Janta Party is at the forefront of the movement, while more established opposition parties, such as Congress, are also participating actively. The thread uniting these groups is their suspicion that the Indian election commission has been tinkering with the rolls to benefit the ruling BJP. Earlier this year, the youth-led CJP organised a massive anti-government campaign calling for the resignation of the education minister over exam irregularities. The movement succeeded in ousting the minister, with the youthful energy of its participants catching the BJP government off guard.

This time too, India’s rulers have responded with brute force, bundling away thousands of protesters, including Rahul Gandhi and CJP leaders, and cutting off access to the iconic Jantar Mantar protest site in Delhi. Around 130m names have been removed from the electoral rolls. The Indian election authorities say the deleted names include voters who have died, relocated, or could not be traced. But the Indian opposition has dismissed this explanation. It is believed that many of the deleted voters were Muslims, as well as those belonging to other marginalised groups. Moreover, media reports say that the Indian election commissioner — whose resignation is being demanded — ignored objections from within the commission to the deletion of such a large number of voters. Such purging of the rolls is in keeping with the BJP regime’s marginalisation of vulnerable groups. It has employed lawfare and dubious means…