Members of several student organisations were detained in Bengaluru on Saturday after attempting to march from Freedom Park towards the Election Commission office, where they were protesting alleged irregularities in the SIR of electoral rolls and demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The protesters gathered at Freedom Park and raised slogans calling for the scrapping of the SIR process. Heavy security was deployed at the site, with roads barricaded on both sides to prevent the group from reaching the Election Commission office, which is located a few hundred metres away, according to a statement issued by AISA Karnataka.
The organisations involved included the All India Students’ Association, Students’ Federation of India, All India Democratic Students’ Organisation and All India Students’ Federation, according to the organisers. The protesters were allegedly detained shortly after they attempted to move towards the office.
AISA Karnataka condemned the police action and claimed that the detentions raised questions about their legality. It described the action as suppression of the right to protest and alleged that protesters were taken into custody after attempting to bypass the barricades.
The organisation demanded that the Karnataka government stop the detentions, release those held and remove the barricades to allow the demonstration to proceed peacefully. It also called for the opening of all spaces within Freedom Park that it alleged had remained barricaded for the past five years.
Freedom Park is Bengaluru’s designated protest space, making the arrangements at the site central to the dispute between the protesters and the authorities. The reported deployment of hundreds of police personnel and the closure of roads around the park also affected the immediate public environment around the protest venue.
The demonstration was directed at the Election Commission’s electoral-roll revision process. The organisers’ allegations regarding irregularities and their demand for the Chief Election Commissioner’s resignation were not independently established in the report. The police did not provide a separate response in the material available.
The next steps will depend on whether the detained protesters are released and whether the authorities permit the organisations to continue their demonstration at Freedom Park or proceed towards the Election Commission office.
