Last updated: October 10, 3:30 pm
Today, October 10, Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led student protests are ongoing in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar area. The protesters are seeking the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged discrepancies in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.
The internet has already been shut down across a four-kilometre region around the designated protest site. Delhi Police has heavily restricted public movement using barricades and spike strips, as well as restrictions on Delhi Metro and rail services.
The restrictions on public transport were raised before the Supreme Court yesterday. The Court said that the state cannot bring everything to a halt. However, as these services remain disrupted, a contempt petition was filed against the officials today. Delhi Police has officially denied permission for the protests and has been asking the public not to join them, including through automated public announcements.
Here is MediaNama’s live tracker of censorship and digital developments surrounding the Jantar Mantar protests.
Censorship developments:
Newslaundry journalists arrested and phones seized: Despite identifying themselves as journalists, three Newslaundry reporters and several other journalists and students were allegedly arrested by Delhi Police officer Dhan Singh Malik. “Journalists are there to report, not to protest. They were not obstructing police operations. On what grounds are they being detained and their phones seized?” wrote the organisation on X. Content creator, Kavya Karnatac, who runs YouTube channel KK Create is also forcibly detained. UPDATE: Newslaundry said that their reporters are note released by the Delhi Police.
YouTuber Dhruv Rathee detained: After participating in protests in Bengaluru, Rathee travelled to Delhi to join the protests. He has now been detained by the police from Gurugram. CJP founder and president Abhijit Dipke, along with Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, has also been arrested or detained by Delhi Police while aboard his flight. The police have already detained several students, including some who were allegedly travelling to Delhi.
CJP founder and president Abhijit Dipke’s video blocked in India within hours of being posted: In the now-blocked video, Dipke said he would fly from Mumbai to Delhi the following morning and did not know whether he would be arrested “from the airport itself, or after that.”
He said the CJP was fighting for “free and fair elections”, which, he claimed, could not happen without Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, the scrapping of the SIR process, and a “neutral and independent” process for selecting Election Commissioners.
Parody and satire account NetaFlix withheld in India: “This Post from @NetaFlixIndia has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand,” read the notice displayed on X. The account’s user subsequently posted that the account had been withheld in India. The post may have been made using a virtual private network (VPN) or from another country. The user also sought assistance from Internet Freedom Foundation’s (IFF) Apar Gupta.
Content creator Satvik Soni’s Instagram account unavailable in India: “My friend @stvksn’s account was restricted by Meta because he was helping protestors beaten by Delhi Police,” posted YouTuber and political commentator Meghnad.
Non-censorship digital developments:
Civilian detained over a picture in his phone gallery: Delhi Police detained a person from outside Delhi for more than seven hours, starting at 5 am, as he walked near the protest site to reach the nearby Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital to visit a relative. Speaking to The Indian Express, he said he had been detained because of a picture saved in his phone’s gallery. He had reportedly sent the picture to family members to show them the traffic situation. He also said the police had forced him to unlock his phone.
Quick-commerce, food delivery and ride-hailing apps could suspend services: The Indian Express reported that Delhi Police had spoken to cab aggregators such as Uber and Ola, as well as food delivery and quick-commerce platforms such as Zomato, Blinkit and Zepto, asking them to suspend services. The police had reportedly asked the platforms to stop rides to the Jantar Mantar area and restrict bulk orders to the protest site.
However, unlike during the previous protests in July, food delivery and ride-hailing services were still operating when MediaNama checked at around 9 am and 11 am.
Drones deployed at the protest site for security: “Drones being used to monitor the security situation around the roundabout near Hotel Le Méridien,” reported news agency ANI. As far as MediaNama is aware, Delhi Police and the armed forces deployed at the protest site did not use drones during the July protests.
Delhi Police to use body cameras without final rules or standard operating procedures: “These body cams are to protect us and others. In situations of manhandling, allegations are levelled against Delhi Police. So, these body cams will prove whether we did anything to anyone or not. This will record everything…” said an unnamed police official to ANI.
A public interest litigation was filed in the Delhi High Court seeking rules and standard operating procedures for the use of body-worn cameras. The Court asked the Centre to decide on the plea within the next six months.
“There has to be an SOP, until there is some sort of law… it is different from facial recognition technology which has concerns about surveillance, profiling, privacy… The question is ultimately of accountability… body-worn cameras are used, but it is all sporadic, no SOP, no chain of custody, preservation or access… Purpose is to rather than having this chaos… there has to be some way for accountability…There has to be some procedure that needs to be laid down, it will benefit the whole process,” — Advocate Akhil Sibal
This is a developing story. We will update the copy as we learn more. If you have anything substantial related to this issue, please email me at [email protected].
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