From inside, she spoke via Instagram as the protests in Delhi over alleged electoral fraud went into full hybrid mode on Sunday. She marched. She ran. She was chased. She dodged. She ran again. She was caught. She frowned and smiled, raised slogans, and was pushed into a police bus. Neha Bora, president of the All India Students’ Association (AISA), was detained yet again, along with scores of others, in central Delhi as they attempted to march towards Jantar Mantar.
CJP leaders, released from detention on Sunday morning, said the agitation would now spread across the country. Demonstrations were also held in other cities on Sunday, including Mumbai. After she was detained, she posted another video . “This bus has four ‘cells’, and there is no place to breathe… Online, the response from her mostly young, or Gen Z, followers mixed self-aware mirth with defiance, a running theme ever since the meme page-turned-pressure group CJP held its maiden protest in June-July that forced the resignation of the education minister over paper leaks.
The protests came a day after police detained at least 3,000, among them four former chief ministers, to thwart the protest call given by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and backed by the Opposition.
Delhi Police said the mass action was preventive as the protest lacked permission. “The fight has just begun,” CJP co-convener Ashutosh Ranka said. Are detention buses being turned into jail?” she said. She accused the central paramilitary forces and police of “waging war against the common people”. “This protest will not stop until Gyanesh resigns,” Ranka said. “The protests will happen not just in Delhi but the whole country,” Das added, also targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls. The BJP has termed the protests an “anti-India plot by foreign forces”. Party president Nitin Nabin said the CJP and the Congress have been “competing on who can spread more anarchy”. The Opposition’s demand charter, presented to President Droupadi Murmu last Friday, lists four demands: resignation of Gyanesh Kumar and the repeal of the 2023 law that provides lifelong legal immunity to the CEC and ECs; immediate suspension of the SIR and the restoration of all 13.3 crore voters deleted; a return to paper ballots for all elections; annulment of all Assembly elections over the last two years “in which conclusive evidence of vote chori has been presented”.
