Vote Theft, Protests and the Limits of Dictatorship in India

Guest post by Anand Sharma on the fight against electoral repression in India

Hum Dilli Dilli Jaayenge, Ham Apna Hind Banayenge (To Delhi, Delhi we will march, we will create our India)

This famous verse features in the 2004 Indian film Bose: The Forgotten Hero, recounting the life of the Indian nationalist and revolutionary Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Bose was a elemental figure in the Independence Movement and founded the Indian National Army, the largest armed resistance front against Imperial Britain. The march to Delhi represents not just the mobilisation of Indians during the Anti-Imperialist Struggle – it represents the eternal yearn for freedom and justice that never dies. But Indians travelling to Delhi on 10th October 2026 found themselves confronted with more than minor difficulties – the government cancelled over 250 Delhi-bound trains. This is in addition to closing all metros, shutting down the internet, and importing over 60,000 armed officers into the capital. Indeed, the authoritarian intensity with which travel to Delhi was restricted is certainly reminiscent of the imprisonment of the subcontinent by Britain. But this is 2026 — 79 years since India’s national liberation — so what exactly is happening?

Unsurprisingly, the BJP regime’s lockdown of Delhi is another attempt to crush protest and silence dissent in an India that has been democratically backsliding ever since Modi took power in 2014. The story starts in late September 2026 when the Indian Express published an investigative report revealing how India’s Chief Electoral Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar made unlawful changes to India’s voting structure. These were despite a lack of judicial approval and concerns raised by Sukhbir Singh and Vivek Joshi, the two deputy Electoral Commissioners, who were ignored despite having expressed disagreement at least 14 times in the preceding 10 months. Specifically, concerns relate to the ‘Special Intensive Revision’ (SIR), a process which claimed to ‘streamline’ India’s voter base by deleting the names of deceased, duplicate, and absent voters. In reality however, this left millions of Indian citizens without the right to vote, causing large-scale disenfranchisement instead of delivering the enhanced system that was promised.

In 2025 the SIR removed at least 4.7M voters in Bihar. In early 2026 in West Bengal over 9M voters were removed by the SIR, accounting for roughly 12% of the state’s entire electorate. Data later revealed that 82% of the deleted voters later appealed, evidently indicating that most deleted voters were living citizens, and not duplicates, deceased, or absentees. Some raise concerns that this may have unfairly swung the results of the state election toward the BJP’s favour, ending 15 years of TMC rule in the state. In Delhi the SIR removed 4.7M voters, immediately invalidating 1/3rd of all voters in the capital. This included sitting Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and former BJP leader LK Advani [9].

But whilst influential and political elites can quickly amend this mistake, grievances are greater for most of India’s working class. Analysis by The Reporter’s Collective reveals that most deletions are in socio-economically disadvantaged areas, with housing in these areas often demolished by the state for being ‘unplanned’, leaving many individuals homeless – this makes it nearly impossible for them to rejoin the electoral register, despite the fact that a fixed address is not a legal prerequisite for voting in a democracy. In addition to working class Indians, concerns exist that the SIR selectively disempowers minorities. In Odisha thousands of Muslim voters have been removed from the register after strangers filed “Form 7” deletion requests without their consent. The impacts of the SIR thus extend beyond mere vote theft – it exacerbates pre-existing social and economic inequalities, further polarising Indian society and disproportionately suppressing minority communities.

After the news broke that Gyanesh Kumar helped manufacture the disenfranchisement of Indian voters without legal approval and in defiance of complaints by colleagues, anger naturally blossomed across India. Not hatred, not contempt, just anger – anger at the system, anger at the slow death of democracy, and the anger of realising that their own government had betrayed them. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), an Indian youth movement that emerged in response to educational corruption and paper leaks, declared a national protest in Delhi on October 10th, demanding the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, a pause on the SIR, and the restoration of deleted voters. Momentum grew when opposition parties, student unions, and youth organisations agreed to join, including the INC (Indian National Congress), AAP (Aam Aadmi Party), and KYS (Krantikari Yuva Sangathan). What happened on October 10th however was more than just a protest – it will be remembered as the day the Indian government declared war against her own citizens.

The police began by implementing a curfew, and restricting all movement into Delhi, hoping to prevent people from gathering to raise their voice. Then internet services were shutdown, designed to restrict the flow of information and prevent the truth from emerging. More than 60,000 security personnel were deployed, composed of Delhi Police, Rapid Action Force, and Border Security Forces from across India. With this much militarisation, one would be forgiven for thinking Delhi was embracing for a Pakistani invasion. In the eyes of the state however, the ‘invaders’ were none other than the Indian youth. Over 7000 protestors were detained and removed, often with a callousness and mistreatment that border-lined assault. These included all 3 CJP leaders (Abhijit Dipke, Saurav Das, and Ashutosh Ranka), as well as Communist MPs John Brittas, Manik Sarkar, and Pinayari Vijayan. AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal was also detained, as well as TMC leader Mamata Bannerjee and prominent YouTube journalist Dhruv Rathee. Neha Bora of AISA (All-India Student Association) and Aishe Ghosh of SFI (Student Federation of India) too were arrested, in addition to 100 lawyers and over 30 journalists.

Such a brutal and widespread mass-detention serves as a stark reminder of India’s ongoing 2nd Emergency. But when a nation is forced to live on the fringes of dictatorship, the totalitarian tendencies of state repression become increasingly normalised. In addition to raw violence, police officers have also been accused of harassing, groping, and sexually assaulting women protestors and journalists. Sadly, this sexism is not new – women who attended earlier CJP protests in July this year against exam leaks described being stalked, harassed, and doxxed online – some even received rape threats for their participation in the protests. In Connaught Place of Central Delhi, right-wing men assaulted and attacked protestors whilst police refused to intervene. Police also installed 300 CCTV cameras to surveil protestors — in addition to the 7-layer barricading, 12 detention centres, 245+ trains cancelled, 45+ metro stations closed, 60,000+ armed personnel deployed, and internet shutdown. There is no question about it now – Modi has turned India into a police state.

The United Nations Human Rights Office has asked for Indian Police to unconditionally and immediately release all detained protestors. The Indian government has outrightly rejected the UN comments. Meanwhile, agitation continues to grow across India and beyond. The Indian Diaspora has also joined in the resistance against electoral corruption and Gyanesh Kumar, with protests having occurred in UK, Ireland, Nederland, Canada, and USA. This highlights that the dissatisfaction with Gyanesh Kumar, vote theft, and dictatorship extends beyond borders — it appals Indians, journalists, activists, liberals, and leftists across the world, because the oppression of human beings anywhere threatens democracy everywhere.

On June 4th 1989, the CPC declared war against Chinese human beings in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. And on October 10th 2026, the BJP has declared war against Indian human beings in Jantar Mantar, Delhi. But despite all the violence, police brutality, and authoritarianism, the flame of resistance always burns brightly in India, a nation crafted by blood, forged through the legacy of struggle against British Imperialism. In 1947 the oppressors were foreign, today they come from within. This may be India’s only chance to free herself.

The original version of this article was published on the Karuna! Substack, and we thank Anand Sharma for kind permission to post it here.