Videos released by opposition leaders show several senior figures being detained in New Delhi on Saturday. Among them is Arvind Kejriwal, Aam Aadmi Party leader and former Delhi Chief Minister. “It’s official… we live under an absolute dictatorship,” Kejriwal wrote in X. Mamata Banerjee, who lost power as West Bengal chief minister earlier this year, was also detained. Pinarayi Vijayan, a communist leader who led the southern state of Kerala until May, was among those detained. Rahul Gandhi, leader of India’s opposition Congress Party, called the crackdown an act of “cowardice” and described Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, right-wing Hindu nationalist RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and national security adviser Ajit Doval as “the villains of this story” who were “slowly finding the space closing around them. We are closing that space.” Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rahul Gandhi’s sister and Congress MP, wrote in a social media post: “India is no longer a democracy. It is a dictatorship led by Mr. Narendra Modi and Mr. Amit Shah.” Opposition parties and their critics have warned that the electoral roll revision exercise could strip millions of people of their voting rights and give an advantage to Prime Minister Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Indian authorities try to shut down a ‘Cockroaches’ protest. The protests echo the CJP’s mass mobilization in July, which forced the then education minister to resign over an exam scandal. This time, protesters are demanding the resignation of electoral chief Gyanesh Kumar. Indian opposition leaders say revised electoral roll could disenfranchise millions and benefit Modi’s ruling BJPImage: Ajit Solanki/AP Photo/picture Alliance
