Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The UN human rights office on Saturday raised concerns over mass detentions linked to large protests in Delhi and urged the Indian authorities to respect the right to peaceful assembly and release anyone arbitrarily detained.
Hundreds of protesters were detained as security forces stopped a planned demonstration by the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party from reaching Jantar Mantar in central Delhi. The protest was called to demand electoral reforms and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of manipulation of voter lists. The Election Commission and the Bharatiya Janata Party have denied the allegations.
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In a statement, UN human rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said the office was ‘concerned by reports of mass detentions in India of demonstrators, protest leaders, members of civil society organisations, lawyers and journalists, before and during today’s large-scale demonstrations in Delhi’. The office said, ‘We call on the authorities to ensure that the right to peaceful assembly is fully respected and fulfilled,’ adding that ‘Restrictions on peaceful protests must meet strict tests of necessity and proportionality.’
Al-Kheetan also urged the authorities to ensure that law enforcement personnel exercise ‘utmost restraint’ in responding to peaceful protesters, in line with India’s democratic traditions and human rights obligations. ‘All those arbitrarily detained must be immediately and unconditionally released,’ he said. The UN also called on the authorities to ‘engage in meaningful dialogue to address the broadly held concerns expressed’.
The CJP had planned to hold its demonstration at Jantar Mantar, but Delhi Police denied permission for the protest. Heavy security arrangements and roadblocks prevented most demonstrators from reaching the area. The group said its founder, Abhijeet Dipke, and two other leaders, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were detained shortly after their flight from Mumbai landed in Delhi. Delhi Police have not publicly commented on their detentions.
The CJP and opposition parties have accused Kumar of favouring the BJP in the updating of electoral rolls. The Election Commission has said its nationwide revision of voter lists, called the Special Intensive Revision, is a routine exercise to remove the names of dead, duplicate or ineligible voters. While tens of thousands of people in several states have alleged that their names were wrongly removed from electoral rolls, the Commission has denied allegations of political interference.
The CJP is a Gen Z-led satirical movement and is not registered as a political party. It emerged in May after Dipke posted a question on X in response to India’s chief justice likening some unemployed young people to ‘cockroaches’. The post went viral, and the movement took shape. The group later became a major protest movement during weeks of demonstrations over the summer, demanding education reforms and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Those protests ended in July after Pradhan resigned. The CJP has now returned to the streets with demands for electoral reforms and Kumar’s resignation.
The BJP criticised Saturday’s protests and accused opposition groups led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and associates of Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal of trying to destabilise the country. BJP president Nitin Nabin alleged that the groups were pursuing their political agendas ‘at the behest of foreign forces’. He also accused them of refusing to accept the people’s verdict and trying to create instability, and said Indian democracy was strong enough to thwart their efforts.
The developments left Delhi at the centre of a political confrontation over the protests, the detentions and the allegations around voter list revision, even as the UN called for restraint, dialogue and the release of anyone arbitrarily detained.
With PTI Inputs
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
