Amnesty International Slams India’s Mass Detentions of Voter Protesters

Police in New Delhi detained more than 700 protesters and opposition leaders on October 2, 2026, during demonstrations challenging India’s election authorities over a controversial revision of voter rolls, truthout.org reported. The crackdown prompted Amnesty International to accuse the government of trampling fundamental rights in the world’s largest democracy.

Mass Detentions at Jantar Mandar Target Opposition Figures

Demonstrators gathered outside Jantar Mantar on October 2, 2026, to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Police detained prominent political figures including former Delhi Chief Minister Atishi Marlena, Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj, and leftist All India Students’ Association president Neha Bora. Journalists covering the events were also blocked from working and reportedly detained by security forces.

Law enforcement officials mobilized thousands of officers and blocked off roads across the capital. Police justified the arrests by citing Section 163 of India’s criminal code, a provision designed to address immediate public order threats that critics say is misused to broadly restrict peaceful political assembly.

Detaining people simply because they intend to protest is a blatant attack on the rights to liberty and freedom of peaceful assembly.

Aakar Patel, Amnesty International India board chair

Voter Roll Purges Disenfranchise Millions Across States

The protests stem from the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, which has removed more than 133 million names from draft voter lists across 30 states and union territories since last year. The cuts represent about 14.1% of the pre-revision rolls. Delhi recorded the largest reduction, with 32.8% of registered electors removed from its draft list.

While election officials maintain the revision verifies voter eligibility and cleans up the rolls, critics warn the mass deletions disenfranchise legitimate voters. Those most affected include citizens who have migrated, lack documentation, or belong to marginalized communities. Tensions escalated last month after an Indian Express investigation revealed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally objected at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions regarding voter additions, deletions, and other SIR-related procedures.

Protesters and opposition figures argue the overhaul undermines the democratic process. Anurag Dhanda, an AAP spokesperson who was among those detained, told the Indo-Asian News Service that we are simply demanding that democracy should not be destroyed and accused the government of vote theft.