‘How can you stop these kids?’ Indian capital on lockdown before protests

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pulled out all the stops to prevent Cockroach movement protests taking over New Delhi.

Police officers surrounded by yellow barricades direct commuters to an alternate route following road closures on the day of a protest by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) seeking the resignation of India's chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, in New Delhi, India, on October 10, 2026 [Priyanshu Singh/Reuters]

New Delhi, India – Heavy police barricades line the streets around Connaught Place, the colonial-era square near Jantar Mantar, on Saturday morning as police have begun detaining groups of protesters arriving for planned demonstrations.

They are here in support of the influential Gen-Z movement and Cockroach Janta Party, which have called for the resignation of India’s election chief, amid a bitter dispute over who gets to vote in the world’s most populous democracy.

Protesters are demanding sweeping reforms and a rollback of a controversial voter revision exercise which has struck 130 million names from the voter list.

For now, an eerie silence hangs over parts of central New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has gone to lengths to turn the city into a fortress, deploying nearly 30,000 personnel onto the streets.

Police ⁠have also detained the founder of ⁠the Cockroach Janta Party, Abhijeet Dipke.

Indian TV channels reported early on Saturday that officers met Dipke at New Delhi airport ⁠after he arrived ⁠from the financial capital Mumbai and asked him to call ⁠off the protest as authorities ⁠had banned it.

CJP leaders ⁠Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were also detained from their flight ‌upon landing, the movement said in a statement.

On Friday, the government extraordinarily cancelled all trains to New Delhi; locked down more than 50 metro stations; imposed an internet shutdown; and sent personnel to thousands of students in local communities to warn them against participation in the protest.

Several students en route to New Delhi from different states of India were dragged out of trains and buses and detained by the police. Many have been placed under house arrest in cities hundreds of kilometres away from New Delhi.

The Cockroach movement says thousands have been detained across India as Modi’s government intensifies its crackdown. Yet undeterred protesters have pledged to keep returning to the streets.

‘Made EMERGENCY official’

Current restrictions in the Indian capital and the nationwide crackdown on protesters have evoked memories of the 1975 Emergency, when then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi suspended civil liberties, censored the press and jailed political opponents.

“Narendra Modi just made EMERGENCY official,” Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach movement, wrote in a post on X. “This intimidation is not going to work, Modi. The youth of this country are no longer scared of you.”

Neha Bora, the firebrand Gen-Z protest leader and the national president of the left student body All India Students’ Association, equated the Modi government with British colonialist forces that unsuccessfully clamped down on India’s independence movement. She called on the masses to join the protest.

On Saturday morning, young people were trying to respond to her call despite the police restrictions in place.

Santosh Kumar, 29, a street sweeper in the outer circle of Connaught Place, told Al Jazeera he feels frustrated seeing teenagers detained at police barricades.

“How can you stop these kids? They are detaining 10; 50 more are coming. Modi, the dictator’s time is up: He will not even stay until 2029 (the time of the next elections).

“This is the time we turn Delhi into Nepal and Bangladesh – learn from them and take back our country,” he said, referring to youth-led movements in those countries.

Sameer Irshad, 28, an engineer from Gurugram, approached the barricades near Connaught Place while pushing his 57-year-old mother Sheeba Abdi in a wheelchair.

Abdi told us: “This sort of crackdown, where we cannot peacefully express our dissent, is unseen in Delhi. Why has government turned this place into a fortress? Why are they so scared of citizens like me?”

Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) supporters sleep in a park next to the site of Saturday’s planned protest seeking the resignation of India’s chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, in New Delhi, India, October 10, 2026 [Bhawika Chhabra/Reuters]

Last month, India was shaken by revelations of divisions within the supposedly autonomous body that is in charge of conducting elections, over controversial policies that critics say have disenfranchised tens of millions of people.

India’s Election Commission chief, Gyanesh Kumar, was accused of overruling concerns raised by the two other election commissioners about the integrity of ongoing changes in the voter database, an investigation by The Indian Express reported.

India is among the few countries to have taken an active approach to enrolling every last voter.

Critics say the ongoing revision of the voter list flips the foundational principle of Indian democracy: Demanding that citizens prove their voting rights, and disproportionately targeting Muslims, economically weaker sections, minorities and other vulnerable groups in Indian society.

Arif, a 24-year-old district coordinator for the Students’ Federation of India, another left-wing student organisation to have joined the protest call, was locked in his home in Saharanpur, nearly 200km (125 miles) from New Delhi, on Thursday.

“Several police officials started beating my door out of nowhere late at night, asking my parents for details of my whereabouts,” Arif, who did not want to give his full name, told Al Jazeera from his home in Saharanpur, where he is currently detained under the police’s watch around the clock.

“They just want to stop me from going to Delhi for protest. They are threatening to book me under criminal cases and destroy my future,” he said, adding that this is the first time he has been subject to such detention.

“I really wanted to be in Delhi, to fight and reclaim our democracy. The time for Modi is over,” he said.

Modi ‘at his weakest’

This week, Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BNP) celebrated his 25 years in office, starting with his years as chief minister of the western state of Gujarat – where he oversaw the infamous 2002 Muslim pogrom – and later as India’s prime minister since 2014.

But Modi has never looked weaker in power than now, analysts and Indian political observers argue.

In July, the Cockroach-led protests choked key New Delhi streets and forced out Modi’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan.

This time, Modi has taken more extreme measures to prevent protesters from gaining a foothold in central New Delhi, “because he wishes to retain the aura and image of a leader who never yields to public pressure, someone who is invincible”, said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, an author and biographer of Modi.

“Modi appears at the lowest point [of his political life] in public perception. This is extremely paradoxical because he has some of the most important autonomous institutions, large sections of the bureaucracy, and state wings in tight control and acting at his behest,” Mukhopadhyay told Al Jazeera.

In the face of growing protests, Modi is now “fast losing people’s perception of being a leader who leads them out of livelihood pits”, he said.

Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer at the Supreme Court and a rights activist who planned to join the protest on Saturday, told Al Jazeera that “Modi’s government looks quite scared of the people.

“People in India are rising and demanding answers. And when the government gets scared, they adopt draconian measures to stay in power,” Bhushan said. “But only more and more people will rise from repression.”

印度总理纳伦德拉·莫迪竭尽全力阻止“蟑螂运动”抗议活动占领新德里。

2026年10月10日，在印度新德里，警察在黄色路障的包围下引导通勤者绕道前往其他路线，此前，蟑螂人民党（CJP）举行抗议活动，要求印度首席选举专员贾内什·库马尔辞职。[Priyanshu Singh/路透社]

印度新德里——周六上午，康诺特广场（位于简塔曼塔天文台附近的殖民时代广场）周围的街道上布满了厚重的警察路障，警方已开始拘留前来参加计划示威活动的抗议人群。

他们来到这里是为了支持颇具影响力的 Z 世代运动和蟑螂人民党，这两个组织呼吁印度选举委员会主席辞职，此前，世界人口最多的民主国家就谁有权投票的问题爆发了激烈的争论。

抗议者要求进行全面改革，并撤销一项备受争议的选民名单修订工作，该工作已从选民名单中删除了 1.3 亿个名字。

目前，新德里市中心部分地区笼罩在一片诡异的寂静之中。总理纳伦德拉·莫迪领导的政府已竭尽全力将这座城市变成一座堡垒，在街头部署了近3万名警力。

警方还拘留了蟑螂人民党的创始人阿比吉特·迪普克。

印度电视台周六早些时候报道称，迪普克从金融中心孟买抵达新德里机场后，被官员们接见，官员们要求他取消抗议活动，因为当局已经禁止了抗议活动。

该运动在一份声明中表示，CJP领导人Saurav Das和Ashutosh Ranka在飞机着陆后也被拘留。

周五，政府采取了非常措施，取消了所有开往新德里的列车；封锁了 50 多个地铁站；切断了互联网；并派工作人员到当地社区的数千名学生中，警告他们不要参加抗议活动。

多名来自印度不同邦、前往新德里的学生在火车和巴士上被警方强行拖下车并拘留。许多人被软禁在距离新德里数百公里外的城市中。

“蟑螂运动”称，随着莫迪政府加大镇压力度，印度各地已有数千人被拘留。然而，毫不气馁的抗议者誓言将继续走上街头。

“已正式宣布进入紧急状态”

印度首都目前实施的限制措施以及全国范围内对示威者的镇压，让人回想起 1975 年的紧急状态，当时的印度总理英迪拉·甘地暂停了公民自由，审查新闻媒体，并将政治反对派投入监狱。

“纳伦德拉·莫迪刚刚正式宣布进入紧急状态，”蟑螂运动创始人迪普克在X网站上发帖写道。“莫迪，这种恐吓手段不会奏效。这个国家的年轻人不再害怕你了。”

激进的Z世代抗议领袖、左翼学生组织全印学生协会全国主席内哈·博拉将莫迪政府比作当年镇压印度独立运动的英国殖民势力，并呼吁民众加入抗议活动。

周六上午，尽管警方实施了限制措施，年轻人还是试图响应她的号召。

29 岁的桑托什·库马尔是康诺特广​​场外环的一名街道清洁工，他告诉半岛电视台，看到青少年被警方路障拘留，他感到很沮丧。

“你们怎么能阻止这些孩子？他们已经拘留了10个，还有50个即将被抓。莫迪，这个独裁者的时代已经结束了：他甚至撑不到2029年（下次选举的时候）。

“现在是我们把德里变成尼泊尔和孟加拉国的时候了——向他们学习，夺回我们的国家，”他指的是这些国家由青年领导的运动。

来自古尔格拉姆的 28 岁工程师萨米尔·伊尔沙德推着坐在轮椅上的 57 岁母亲希巴·阿卜迪，走向康诺特广场附近的警戒线。

阿卜迪告诉我们：“这种镇压，让我们无法和平表达异议，在德里是闻所未闻的。政府为什么要把这里变成一座堡垒？他们为什么如此害怕像我这样的公民？”

2026年10月10日，在印度新德里，蟑螂人民党（CJP）的支持者睡在公园里，该公园毗邻计划于周六举行的抗议活动地点，抗议活动要求印度首席选举专员贾内什·库马尔辞职。[Bhawika Chhabra/路透社]

上个月，印度被有关选举事务的所谓自治机构内部出现分歧的爆料所震惊，批评人士称，这些有争议的政策剥夺了数千万人的选举权。

据《印度快报》调查报道，印度选举委员会主席贾内什·库马尔被指控无视另外两位选举委员对选民数据库正在进行的变更的完整性提出的担忧。

印度是少数几个积极主动地登记每一位选民的国家之一。

批评人士称，正在进行的选民名单修订颠覆了印度民主的基本原则：要求公民证明其投票权，并且不成比例地针对穆斯林、经济弱势群体、少数族裔和印度社会中的其他弱势群体。

阿里夫是印度学生联合会（另一个加入抗议号召的左翼学生组织）的一名 24 岁的地区协调员，周四他被锁在位于萨哈兰普尔的家中，距离新德里近 200 公里（125 英里）。

“几名警察在深夜突然闯入我家，敲我的门，向我的父母询问我的下落，”不愿透露全名的阿里夫在萨哈兰普尔的家中告诉半岛电视台。他目前被警方24小时看守，拘留在那里。

“他们只是想阻止我去德里参加抗议活动。他们威胁要以刑事罪名逮捕我，毁掉我的前途，”他说，并补充说这是他第一次受到这样的拘留。

“我真的很想待在德里，为捍卫和夺回我们的民主而战。莫迪的时代已经结束了，”他说。

莫迪“最虚弱的时候”

本周，莫迪和他的印度人民党（BNP）庆祝了他执政25周年，从他担任西部古吉拉特邦首席部长开始——在那里他主导了臭名昭著的2002年穆斯林大屠杀——后来自2014年以来一直担任印度总理。

但分析人士和印度政治观察家认为，莫迪的权力从未像现在这样显得如此弱势。

7 月，由“蟑螂党”领导的抗议活动瘫痪了新德里的主要街道，迫使莫迪的教育部长达尔门德拉·普拉丹下台。

这一次，莫迪采取了更为极端的措施来阻止抗议者在新德里市中心站稳脚跟，“因为他希望保持自己作为一位从不屈服于公众压力、所向披靡的领导人的光环和形象”，莫迪的传记作者兼作家尼兰詹·穆克霍帕迪亚伊说道。

穆克霍帕迪亚伊告诉半岛电视台：“莫迪在公众眼中似乎正处于政治生涯的最低点。这极其矛盾，因为他牢牢掌控着一些最重要的自治机构、庞大的官僚体系以及各级政府部门，这些机构都听命于他。”

他说，面对日益高涨的抗议活动，莫迪现在“正在迅速失去人们眼中能够带领他们摆脱生计困境的领导人形象”。

最高法院高级律师兼人权活动家普拉尚特·布尚计划参加周六的抗议活动，他告诉半岛电视台：“莫迪政府看起来很害怕人民。”

“印度人民正在奋起反抗，要求得到答案。而当政府感到恐惧时，他们就采取严酷的手段来保住权力，”布尚说。“但只会有更多的人反抗压迫。”