New Delhi, Oct 9 (PTI) Wearing Batman masks — a fictional superhero — the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) on Friday protested against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and demanded his resignation, saying names wrongly deleted from voter lists must be restored.
Led by IYC president Uday Bhanu Chib, the protesters attempted to march from Akbar Road towards Kartavya Path, with police detaining 25 of them, the Congress’ youth wing said.
Chib said the organisation would fight to include voters whose names had been struck off the electoral rolls or wrongly marked dead during the revision exercise.
“Whoever has had their name struck off the electoral roll or has been declared dead, we demand that their name be included. We will ensure their names are added,” he said.
The IYC has been demanding Kumar’s resignation, alleging that the SIR process has raised serious questions about the Election Commission’s functioning and the exclusion of eligible voters.
“When the credibility and impartiality of the Election Commission are being questioned, the answer cannot be to shut down the streets and silence the protesters. The answer must be transparency, accountability and democratic dialogue,” Chib said.
He accused the government of restricting the right to protest, saying the Delhi Police denied the organisation permission to hold a demonstration at Jantar Mantar despite requests since September 25.
Welcoming the Supreme Court’s observations on restrictions imposed to prevent protests, Chib said demonstrators had a right to raise their concerns. “They can put up barricades, deploy police and deny permissions, but they cannot put barricades around the voice of India’s youth,” he said.
Security has been stepped up across Lutyens’ Delhi ahead of a planned protest by the Cockroach Janta Party on October 10.
While hearing a plea against the closure of 57 metro stations in the national capital and cancellation of trains to Delhi in view of the protest, the Supreme Court directed the Centre to ensure that there is no “complete prohibition” of the movement of metro and trains coming to Delhi on October 10 due to a CJP protest, saying they cannot bring everything to a halt.
The top court said law enforcement agencies can restrict unruly movement; citizens should not be unduly harassed. PTI MSJ ASD
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.