Solidarity with 10th October Mass Protests in India

Today the people of India, led by the youth, are fighting an intense struggle against the fascist Modi regime. Ahead of today’s massive united #GyaneshMustGo protests, police and paramilitaries in unprecedented numbers have been flooding the streets of the capital, the internet has been shut down in central Delhi, metro stations closed, trains and buses stopped from entering Delhi and all protests declared illegal.

Activists have been detained or put under house arrest, sexual violence by the police is ongoing, students travelling to the protest have been violently pulled from trains, police have entered mosques to demand that parents keep their children away. Meanwhile right-wing Hindutva thugs have been openly threatening to attack protesters and sinister colonial-style police announcements were being played on a loop across Delhi, warning people not to take part in protests.

This is no surprise given Hindutva’s long history of colonial collaboration and the current Indian government’s alignment with imperialism.

Why is the government so afraid of these protests? Why are Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah still refusing its key demand of the impeachment of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar?

Gyanesh Kumar was in charge of the Special Intensive Revision (or SIR) of the electoral rolls which is an instrument for mass disenfranchisement of Muslims, Dalits, rural and urban working people and anyone unlikely to vote for the BJP. Millions of voters have had their names deleted from the electoral rolls. The SIR, like the Citizenship Amendment Act before it, is a key element in furthering the RSS project of turning India into a Hindu state.

Gyanesh was in charge of this whole process and the blatant illegality of his actions has been exposed even by his colleagues, the two other election commissioners. If he is removed by the government it would be an official admission of his guilt which in turn would implicate the entire Modi-Shah regime. It would give a huge boost to another related demand of the movement, to hold fresh elections in those states like West Bengal, where the BJP has come to power on the basis of these falsified electoral rolls.

We in the diaspora must amplify the demands of the movement including –

• Impeach Gyanesh Kumar!
• Suspend SIR Immediately!
• Restore the voting rights of every wrongfully deleted voter!
• Cancel the SIR-based elections which have been held in West Bengal, Bihar and other states, and hold fresh elections!
• Ensure neutrality, transparency and accountability in the conduct of the Election Commission of India!

Today, undeterred protesters are on the streets. Large numbers are being detained across Delhi.

But as Neha Bora, President of the All-India Students’ Association says “In 1942, the British arrested the leaders before dawn, believing a movement dies when its leaders are taken. It did not. The young carried it forward and ended the Raj”.

We stand in unwavering solidarity with everyone braving police brutality and barricades today.

We await your victory because the people united can never be defeated!