In brief
Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, senior members of the Gen‑Z‑led Cockroach Janta Party, walked out of Tihar jail after a magistrate ordered their release for trespassing at the historic Jantar Mantar protest site. The leaders had crossed barricades and climbed the locked gate to protest, as the venue was recently removed from India’s list of permitted protest sites. The CJP, which began as an internet joke in May, has grown into a major force, raising accusations that the Chief Election Commissioner’s special intensive revision of voter rolls is skewed to favour Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP. Both the Election Commission and the ruling party deny the allegations, stating the exercise removes ineligible entries. The release underscores the growing impact of Gen‑Z activism on India’s electoral discourse.
The two senior members of the Gen‑Z‑led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, walked out of Tihar jail after a special executive magistrate granted them release, following a week‑long detention for trespassing at the historic Jantar Mantar protest site.
The pair had crossed barricades and climbed over the locked gate to protest at Jantar Mantar, a venue that was recently removed from India’s list of designated protest sites. Their arrest was widely viewed as a crackdown on youth activism and a warning to the broader movement that has been vocal about electoral reform and alleged manipulation of voter rolls.
Since launching as an internet joke in May, the CJP has grown into a major force, mobilising thousands of young people to demand the removal of leaked exam papers and, more recently, to oppose what it calls the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls that has purged around 130 million names in the past year.
Both leaders have called for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that the SIR benefits Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. The Election Commission and the ruling party reject these allegations, saying the exercise is meant to remove ineligible, dead and duplicate entries from the rolls.
The release of Das and Ranka comes amid heightened tensions between the CJP and law‑enforcement agencies, and underscores the growing influence of Gen‑Z activism in shaping the political discourse around India’s electoral integrity.
