Photo: Collected
A protest has been held in Delhi demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging irregularities and mass deletion of voters’ names in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process of India’s voter list. When leaders and activists of various political parties, students and other organisations gathered at Jantar Mantar on Friday, internet services were shut down there and in the surrounding areas for 12 hours to bring the situation under control.
A Hindustan Times report said telecom operators such as Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea were instructed to keep the internet shut down at Jantar Mantar and within a radius of one and a half kilometres of it from 9am to 9pm local time on Friday. No official statement on this was available from the Delhi government or the central government until the report was written.
Several political parties and various student organisations including AISA, SFI and NSUI took part in the protest. They allege that the names of a large number of voters have been dropped from the list through irregularities in the SIR process. The resignation of the chief election commissioner is being demanded in the light of these allegations.
Police said no permission was taken for the protest. Various reports citing PTI said around 700 protesters have so far been detained from Jantar Mantar and the surrounding areas, among them leaders and activists of various political parties and student organisations.
Earlier, in July too, the internet was temporarily shut down at Jantar Mantar and in several areas of central Delhi. At that time, amid the movement of the Cockroach Janata Party (CGP) over the alleged leak of the medical admission test question paper, protests were going on demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Within a span of three months, the decision to suspend the internet has again been taken amid protests in the same area.
