Leaders Taken Directly from the Plane: Indian Authorities Systematically Dismantle the 'Cockroach Party' Protest Movement

In the early morning of October 10, after a passenger plane from Mumbai landed in New Delhi, the founder of India's "Cockroach Janta Party" (CJP) Abhijeet Dipke and his two colleagues Saurov Das and Ashutosh Ranka had already been taken away by police inside the cabin. According to Deutsche Welle, the three were transferred into custody before they could walk down the boarding stairs, with the reason pointing to a large-scale youth protest planned for that day, directed squarely at the electoral body.

The action, originally scheduled to converge at the landmark "Jantar Mantar" observatory in New Delhi, targeted directly Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar — the trigger being the Election Commission of India's recently implemented "special intensive revision" procedure for voter rolls. The opposition accused the procedure of potentially disenfranchising millions of voters and favoring the BJP led by Prime Minister Modi. Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi on the 10th called Kumar, Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and others "the villains of this story," criticizing that "the space is being slowly closed." But what was actually closed first was the space for the protesters themselves to act.

According to Deutsche Welle, police detained more than 500 people along the routes leading to Jantar Mantar, tens of thousands of security personnel were deployed across New Delhi, and layers of roadblocks were erected in the central area. ANI news agency, citing police sources, said that at Connaught Place alone another approximately 200 people were detained while trying to approach the demonstration site. Deutsche Welle Hindi reporter Adash Sharma on the scene in New Delhi interviewed a protester, who described the high-pressure police deployment as "a game about perception," and said: "20 protesters, 10 media persons, with 100 police standing next to them. This looks like a joke — they're all spending taxpayers' money."

The crackdown quickly spread to the opposition leadership. Former Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal, former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and former Kerala Chief Minister who stepped down this summer (Communist Party leader) Pinarayi Vijayan — three politicians from different parties, all of whom had governed a state — were successively taken into custody at different locations in New Delhi. Kejriwal wrote on platform X: "This is official... we are living under absolute dictatorship under Modi's rule. The arrests of 'Cockroaches' directly from the plane demonstrate unprecedented fear." He compared the current situation to the state of emergency declared by Indira Gandhi in 1975, calling it "worse than the emergency." Deutsche Welle noted that the CJP leadership had warned of a possible crackdown the night before the protest — Dipke said in a pre-recorded video: "If you see this video, it means Ashutosh, Saurov and I have already been arrested."

Press freedom itself was affected. According to Deutsche Welle, Indian media outlets including Scroll and Newslaundry disclosed that their reporters were detained at the scene, some equipment was confiscated by police, and some journalists alleged physical attacks. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) immediately called on Delhi police to immediately release all detained journalists, return confiscated equipment and investigate reports of violence. The 2026 World Press Freedom Index recently released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) showed India ranked 157th out of 180 countries, a further drop of 6 places from 2025; press freedom groups continued to warn that criminal legal tools against journalists were continuously eroding the independent press space.

Even the judicial system rarely spoke out publicly. Deutsche Welle reported that the Supreme Court Bar Association passed a resolution condemning Delhi police's use of "excessive force" and detention against lawyers peacefully protesting inside and outside the Supreme Court — particularly female lawyers — and requesting Chief Justice Surya Kant to intervene urgently to confirm the whereabouts and safety of every detained lawyer. The legal website Bar and Bench noted that detained lawyers came not only from street protesters, but also included practitioners taken away from within their offices.

The ruling side offered a completely different narrative. BJP president Nitin Nabin on the 10th accused Rahul Gandhi, Kejriwal and others of "attempting to incite tension," hinted that "foreign forces" were manipulating behind the scenes, and characterized the protest as "a plot to destabilize India." But Deutsche Welle clearly noted that the BJP had never provided any evidence when making similar accusations in the past. The Election Commission of India rejected the accusation that "irregularities exist in voter roll revision," claiming the procedure was designed to clean up duplicate and ineligible voters.

Protesters did not retreat. CJP immediately appointed Ajinkya Sindh as interim leader to continue pushing the demonstration, and collected information online about volunteers subjected to illegal detention. Organizers accused that the three leaders were taken to unknown locations, cut off from lawyers, and "completely cut off" from the outside world. A protester named Molisi told Deutsche Welle: "We've been playing cat and mouse with police, trying to stop them from taking us away." She continued: "I don't think we've ever seen anything like this. Protesting is a basic right... the idea of applying for permission from the government you want to protest against is so absurd — you apply to the same government? They won't approve it."

Several details surrounding the crackdown remain to be clarified. ANI, citing police sources, said that Dipke was told his grandmother had passed away at their family home in Maharashtra, but this was only reported by Indian media, and the police sources themselves were relayed through ANI, with limited independent verification; there is also currently no official unified data on the total number of people detained. It is worth noting that the "Cockroach movement" in July had forced the resignation of the then-education minister through a large-scale mobilization, but the political weight of the opponents and the intensity of the conflict in this round have far exceeded the previous one.