JOEL ROSE, HOST:
Parts of the capital of the world's largest democracy are on lockdown tonight. Demonstrations flared across New Delhi today to protest a controversial revision of the country's electoral rolls. Authorities there have removed some 130 million names from voter lists or demanded more proof from residents to stay on the list. The protests took place despite authorities barricading routes and detaining hundreds of demonstrators.
NPR's Diaa Hadid is there, and she is on the line with us now. Talk about what sparked all of this - millions of names being struck off of voter rolls. How did this happen?
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: Yeah, it happened because last year, India's electoral commission announced it would clean up the country's voter rolls by removing people who died, moved addresses or were absent in general. And the ruling Hindu nationalist party, known as the BJP, also pitched it as an effort to root out illegal migrants who they claimed were on the voter rolls.
And there were about 980 million people on those rolls. This is the world's largest democracy. But through the role cleanup, an estimated 130 million names were struck off or were threatened with being removed. And one lawyer litigating against this special role revision is Kaustubh Chaturvedi.
KAUSTUBH CHATURVEDI: It's, by such a wide margin, the largest disenfranchisement that's ever occurred.
HADID: That's ever occurred - now, critics accuse the Hindu nationalist government of trying to disenfranchise India's Muslim minority and other groups unlikely to vote for the ruling party.
ROSE: And in the streets today, Diaa, did authorities try to stop people from protesting at all?
HADID: Yeah, they did. Security forces barricaded the area around the city's designated protest site. They cut off the internet in parts of the city. They even rigged up a loudspeaker blaring recorded warnings.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Attention, please. Attention, please. Gathering here is not allowed.
HADID: So protesters, mostly young people, kept popping up in different places, and police kept detaining them. One outlet, the Indian Express, reported that some 6,000 people were detained in all. And they included protest leaders who were picked up from their airplane seats right after their flight landed. One lawyer we talked to, who was hiding in a courthouse, told us that dozens of his colleagues were taken away. The lawyer's name is Deepankur. He requested we don't use his family name for his own safety.
DEEPANKUR: I've never noticed such a large-scale detention of lawyers happening. It's unprecedented.
HADID: Unprecedented - that's a word we heard today a lot to describe the authorities' response. And at one intersection, we saw a rush of riot police blowing on whistles.
(SOUNDBITE OF WHISTLES)
HADID: They were running towards a young man. It appears he'd shouted a slogan against the government.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HADID: Where are you taking him? Where are you taking him?
Police were detaining journalists, as well. Many of those arrested were taken to a sports stadium that police were using as a makeshift holding pen. And by the afternoon, protesters ended up gathering on a bridge. They chanted, Delhi belongs to us all, and other slogans of the Indian left.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting in non-English language).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in non-English language).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting in non-English language).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in non-English language).
ROSE: Wow. That sounds like a chaotic day. How has the government responded to these claims by critics that this is a mass disenfranchisement?
HADID: Well, the electoral commission has issued a statement saying everything they've done is legal, and they urged local officials to check if any voters were incorrectly deleted from the rolls. But the prime minister himself hasn't commented on the situation. Protesters accuse him of hiding behind the police, and they're demanding the resignation of the chief election commissioner.
ROSE: That is NPR's Diaa Hadid in New Delhi. Diaa, thank you, and stay safe.
HADID: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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