Indian authorities carried out a wave of arrests in New Delhi on Saturday to prevent a demonstration calling for the resignation of the chair of the Election Commission. Police said the protest had not been authorized. In the morning, they detained the three main leaders of the “cockroaches” movement while they were traveling by plane to New Delhi, according to local television images. The city centre was heavily secured after authorities moved in more than 20,000 police officers and cut off mobile internet, Press Trust of India reported. Journalists from AFP said protesters were unable to reach the main gathering point at Jantar Mantar. Throughout the day, police repeatedly arrested people trying to get to the site. The Hindu reported that more than 5,000 people were arrested since the start of the day. One protest leader, Abhijeet Dipke, who founded the “People’s Party of Cockroaches” (CJP), was shown saying: “We are here to be arrested, arrest us,” according to local broadcasts. Opposition figures urged continued mobilisation despite the crackdown. Rahul Gandhi called on people not to be deterred by repression, saying online that they should keep protesting. Another CJP leader, Ajinkya Shinde, alleged that 15,000 arrests had taken place. The CJP was formed in May after remarks attributed to the president of the Supreme Court, Surya Kant, who described unemployed young people as “parasites” and “cockroaches.” According to the article, the broader unrest has also been driven by opposition to a revision of voter lists. The article says the revision led to the removal of 130 million voters, citing media counts, with supporters and critics disputing the reasons and fairness of the changes. The Election Commission and its chair, Gyanesh Kumar, denied any irregularities in the voter-list revision. The government’s actions against the protest drew criticism from opposition politicians who accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration of an increasingly authoritarian approach. The source also notes that police had previously used force during a protest in New Delhi on 20 July against alleged exam-related fraud, which the article says resulted in hundreds of injuries according to different sides.